Mucormycosis is a rare and highly aggressive fungal infection, with a potential to reach its fulminant phase rapidly. We report a case of a 73-year-old immunocompromised vasculopath with cutaneous mucormycosis. The disease resulted in eventual death despite aggressive surgical debridement, revascularization of his limb and amphotericin-B. This case highlights the need to recognize this disease ...

BACKGROUND Worldwide, a high proportion of HIV-infected individuals enter into HIV care late. Here, our objective was to estimate the impact that late entry into HIV care has had on AIDS mortality rates in Brazil. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS We analyzed data from information systems regarding HIV-infected adults who sought treatment at public health care facilities in Brazil from 2003 to 2...

BACKGROUND In 2006 the Confidential Enquiry into Maternal and Perinatal Deaths was extended to pilot a collection of child deaths. This helped optimise data collection for local safeguarding children's boards, which, since April 2008, have a statutory responsibility to review all child deaths. Reviewing primary care records may highlight areas in which systems, skills, and care could be improve...

Avoidable deaths have been employed as indicators of health care quality. The aim of this study was to identify factors associated with avoidable deaths from birth to four years of age among children from the 2004 Pelotas (Brazil) birth cohort study. From January 1st, 2004, to December 31st, 2005, deaths were monitored on a daily basis and the causes were investigated and classified according t...

OBJECTIVE To describe methods of estimation and assess preventable deaths and types of errors related to health care. METHODS A systematic review of articles on preventable trauma deaths published between 2000 and 2009 was conducted. Lilacs, SciELO and Medline databases were searched using the keywords "trauma," "avoidable," "preventable," "interventions" and "complications" and the health sc...

Objective: To estimate the economic costs of avoidable mortality (AM) in Colombia during the period 1998 to 2011, with the human capital perspective valuing the productivity lost. Methods: The information of cases of avoidable death was identified from the Colombian official general mortality database, and we estimated the potential productivity years of life lost, assuming a productive life sp...

OBJECTIVES To estimate the number of deaths attributable to second hand smoke (SHS), to distinguish attributable and potentially avoidable burdens of mortality, and to identify the most important sources of uncertainty in these estimates. METHOD A case study approach, using exposure and mortality data for New Zealand. RESULTS In New Zealand, deaths caused by past exposures to second hand sm...