BACKGROUND Neonatal infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV) is not a nationally reportable disease; there have been few population-based measures of HSV-related infant mortality. We describe infant death rates due to neonatal HSV as compared with congenital syphilis (CS) and HIV, 2 reportable, perinatally transmitted diseases, in New York City from 1981 to 2013. METHODS We identified neonat...

BACKGROUND The Australian National Tobacco Campaign (NTC) was an intensive mass media anti-smoking campaign, the first phase of which commenced in 1997, cost around $A9 million, and reduced smoking prevalence by 1.4%. OBJECTIVE To assess the cost-effectiveness of phase one of the NTC, which ran from June to November 1997. DESIGN AND STUDY POPULATION The quit benefits model (QBM), a Markov-c...

BACKGROUND Measuring a country's health performance has focused mostly on estimating levels of mortality. An alternative is to measure rates of decline in mortality, which are more sensitive to changes in health policy than are mortality levels. Historical rates of decline in mortality can also help test the feasibility of future health goals (eg, post-2015). We aimed to assess the annual rates...

Why? Acrid smoke deposits are responsible for 511 000 of the 1.3 million deaths due to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) among women worldwide per year versus 173 000 of the total of 1.4 million deaths from COPD among men. Inefficient household energy practices may significantly affect the health of pregnant women such as pelvic organ prolapse during pregnancy due to heavy loads carr...

OBJECTIVE To explore 5 years of drowning deaths in Australia compared with a previous Australian study a decade earlier, and to assess the feasibility of achieving a 50% reduction in unintentional drowning deaths by 2020. DESIGN AND SETTING An audit of all unintentional drowning deaths in Australia using data from the National Coroners Information System for 1 July 2002 to 30 June 2007. MAI...

Acute lower respiratory infections, which broadly include pneumonia and bronchiolitis, are still the leading cause of childhood mortality. ALRI contributed to 18% of all deaths in children younger than five years of age in 2008 [1], and the main pathogens responsible for high mortality were Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae and respiratory syncytial virus [2-4]. In addition, meni...

BACKGROUND Infant mortality in the United States has continued to decline in recent years, but changes in sepsis-associated deaths among infants have not been evaluated previously. METHODS Data from US death records were analyzed for the period 1979 through 1994 to assess trends in sepsis-associated deaths among newborns and older infants. RESULTS Annual neonatal mortality associated with s...

BACKGROUND Unacceptably high levels of preventable maternal mortality persist as a problem across sub-Saharan Africa and much of south Asia. Currently, local assessments of the magnitude of maternal mortality are not often made, so the best available information for health planning may come from global estimates and not reflect local circumstances. METHODS A community-based cross-sectional su...

An excess of 7000 to 10 000 deaths from end-stage kidney disease (ESKD) occurred during the first several months COVID-19 pandemic, according data based on ESKD mortality trends 2016 through 2019.