News

Life expectancy improved for both men and women in the United States, at an average of 3.5 years gained since 1990. But at the same time a number of diseases, including chronic kidney disease and Alzheimer's disease, claimed more lives in the United States in 2013 than in 1990.

Dr. Rodrigo Guerrero, a Harvard-trained epidemiologist and mayor of Cali, Colombia, is the first winner of the Roux Prize, a new US$100,000 award for turning evidence into health impact and the largest prize of its kind.

New HIV infections dropped by almost one-third from the epidemic peak; TB deaths declined by 3.7% between 2000 and 2013; child deaths from malaria in sub-Saharan Africa have dropped 31.5% in the past decade. Despite major progress, the quality of programs to treat HIV varies widely.

Today, 2.1 billion people – nearly 30% of the world’s population – are either obese or overweight, according to a new, first-of-its kind analysis of trend data from 188 countries. The rise in global obesity rates over the last three decades has been substantial and widespread, presenting a major public health epidemic in both the developed and the developing world.

Since the start of an international effort to address maternal and child mortality, millions of lives have been saved globally, a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington shows.

Safer and cleaner road transport is critical for achieving health and development goals around the world, according to a new report that—for the first time—assesses the global health loss from the combined impact of road injuries and pollution that can be attributed to motorized transport.

Risk factors including smoking, poor diet, and lack of physical activity are taking their toll, according to a new study by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, working with the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

Countries in the Arab world – from Saudi Arabia to Mauritania to Yemen – have made some significant health gains over the past two decades, including increases in life expectancy and swift reductions in child mortality. These are some of the findings published January 20 in “The State of Health in the Arab World, 1990–2010: An Analysis of the Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors.” 

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) will release a new policy report, The Global Burden of Disease: Generating Evidence, Guiding Policy – European Union and Free Trade Association Regional Edition, at the 6th European Public Health Conference in Brussels.

Dr. Julio Frenk, Chair of the Board of the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), was awarded the 2013 Abraham Horwitz Award for Excellence in Leadership in Inter-American Public Health (Premio Abraham Horwitz a la Excelencia en Liderazgo en la Salud Pública Interamericana).

In the Middle East and North Africa, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are causing a massive amount of premature death and disability. People in Latin America and the Caribbean are living longer on the whole, yet they face increasing threats from chronic diseases. Mortality has declined in many South Asian countries, yet the number of deaths by non-communicable diseases and self-harm has skyrocketed since 1990.