For over four decades the National Medical Association (NMA) and the Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) have sought to bring to national attention the disparate burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) among African Americans. However, systematic inquiry has been inadequate into the burden of CVD in the poor countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and the African diaspora in the Americas outs...

Background. Although 80% of the burden of cardiovascular disease (CVD) is in developing countries, the 2010 global burden of disease (GBD) estimates have been cited to support a premise that sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is exempt from the CVD epidemic sweeping across developing countries. The widely publicized perspective influences research priorities and resource allocation at a time when secular...

background: gastrointestinal and liver diseases (gilds) are major causes of death and disability in middle east and north africa (mena). however, they have different patterns in countries with various geographical, cultural, and socio-economic status. we aimed to compare the burden of gilds in iran with its neighboring countries using the results of the global burden of disease (gbd) study in 2...

Schistosomiasis is among the most prevalent parasitic infections worldwide. However, current Global Burden of Disease (GBD) disability-adjusted life year estimates indicate that its population-level impact is negligible. Recent studies suggest that GBD methodologies may significantly underestimate the burden of parasitic diseases, including schistosomiasis. Furthermore, strain-specific disabili...

BACKGROUND The estimated impact of illicit drug use and mental disorders upon population health needs to be understood because there is evidence that they produce substantial loss of life and disability, and information is needed on the comparative population health impact of different diseases and risk factors to help focus policy, service and research planning and execution. AIMS To provide...

Copyright © 2013 Massachusetts Medical Society. It is difficult to deliver effective and high-quality care to patients without knowing their diagnoses; likewise, for health systems to be effective, it is necessary to understand the key challenges in efforts to improve population health and how these challenges are changing. Before the early 1990s, there was no comprehensive and internally consi...

T his month we publish the fi ndings of a major study estimating the likely trends in global morbidity and mortality [1]. Such a study should surely cause us, as editors, to pause and refl ect on the implications for what we should be publishing. Which medical conditions will be the major causes of death and disease, and is PLoS Medicine publishing key research studies addressing those conditio...

BACKGROUND Surgery is a foundational component of health-care systems. However, previous efforts to integrate surgical services into global health initiatives do not reflect the scope of surgical need and many health systems do not provide essential interventions. We estimate the minimum global volume of surgical need to address prevalent diseases in 21 epidemiological regions from the Global B...