Nigeria has made notable gains in improving childhood survival but the country still accounts for a large portion of the world’s overall disease burden, particularly among women and children. To date, no systematic analyses have comprehensively assessed trends for health outcomes and interventions across states in Nigeria.
Since the year 2000, a concerted campaign against malaria has led to unprecedented levels of intervention coverage across sub-Saharan Africa. Understanding the effect of this control effort is vital to inform future control planning.
The amount of international aid given to address non-communicable diseases is minimal. Most of it is directed to wealthier countries and focuses on the prevention of unhealthy lifestyles. Explanations for the current direction of non-communicable disease aid include that these are diseases of affluence that benefit from substantial research and development into their treatment in high-income countries and are better addressed through domestic tax and policy measures to reduce risk factor prevalence than through aid programs. This study assessed these justifications.
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013) aims to bring together all available epidemiological data using a coherent measurement framework, standardized estimation methods, and transparent data sources to enable comparisons of health loss over time and across causes, age–sex groups, and countries. The GBD can be used to generate summary measures such as disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) and healthy life expectancy (HALE) that make possible comparative assessments of broad epidemiological patterns across countries and time. These summary measures can also be used to quantify the component of variation in epidemiology that is related to socio-demographic development.
Patients receiving antiretroviral therapy (ART) require routine monitoring to track response to treatment and assess for treatment failure. This study aims to identify gaps in monitoring practices in Kenya and Uganda.
There are not enough data on the epidemiology of asthma in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We analyzed data from a national household survey conducted in KSA in 2013 to estimate prevalence, associated risk factors, and control measurements of asthma.
Rapidly rising global rates of chronic diseases portend a consequent rise in ESRD. Despite this, kidney disease is not included in the list of noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) targeted by the United Nations for 25% reduction by year 2025. In an effort to accurately report the trajectory and pattern of global growth of maintenance dialysis, we present the change in prevalence and incidence from 1990 to 2010.
It is unknown whether Saudis receive health examinations periodically. To inform health authorities on the health-seeking behavior of the Saudi population, we investigated patterns of periodic health examination (PHE) use by Saudis.
Individual income and poverty are associated with poor health outcomes. The poor face unique challenges related to access, education, financial capacity, environmental effects, and other factors that threaten their health outcomes.
Ischemic heart disease (IHD) was responsible for 8.1 million deaths in 2013, the most recent year estimated, which was 14.8% of deaths worldwide. IHD was the leading cause of death globally among men and women in both 1990 and 2013.
As the first report in the series on faith-based health care, we review a broad body of published work and introduce some empirical evidence on the role of faith-based health care providers, with a focus on Christian faith-based health providers in sub-Saharan Africa (on which the most detailed documentation has been gathered).
Tobacco consumption is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality. The Saudi Ministry of Health started a national tobacco control program in 2002 with increased and intensified efforts after joining the World Health Organization Framework Convention for Tobacco Control in 2005.
Crimean-Congo hemorrhagic fever (CCHF) is a tick-borne infection caused by a virus (CCHFV) from the Bunyaviridae family. We used an exhaustive database of human CCHF occurrence records and a niche modeling framework to map the global distribution of risk for human CCHF occurrence.
Diabetes mellitus is a major burden in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). We estimated the direct cost of diabetes in KSA and the future cost accounting for currently undiagnosed and borderline diabetics.
Timely and accurate measurement of population protection against measles is critical for decision-making and prevention of outbreaks. However, little is known about how survey-based estimates of immunization (crude coverage) compare to the seroprevalence of antibodies (effective coverage), particularly in low-resource settings. In poor areas of Mexico and Nicaragua, we used household surveys to gather information on measles immunization from child health cards and caregiver recall.
We estimated the prevalence of ever breastfeeding, early initiation of breastfeeding, exclusive breastfeeding, and breastfeeding between 6 mo and 2 y of age using household survey data for the poorest quintile of families living in 6 Mesoamerican countries. We also assessed the predictors of breastfeeding behaviors to identify factors amenable to policy interventions.
Dengue and chikungunya are increasing global public health concerns due to their rapid geographical spread and increasing disease burden. Knowledge of the contemporary distribution of their shared vectors, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus remains incomplete and is complicated by an ongoing range expansion fueled by increased global trade and travel. Mapping the global distribution of these vectors and the geographical determinants of their ranges is essential for public health planning.
The governments of high-income countries and private organizations provide billions of dollars to developing countries for health. This type of development assistance can have a critical role in ensuring that life-saving health interventions reach populations in need.
This paper outlines a framework which compares each disease’s global burden with its associated interest from the policy community in a data-driven manner which can be used to determine the relative priority of each condition. Malaria, HIV, and TB are, unsurprisingly, ranked highest due to their considerable health burden, while the other priority diseases are dominated by neglected tropical diseases and vector-borne diseases. For some conditions, global mapping efforts are already in place; however, for many neglected conditions there still remains a need for high-resolution spatial surveys.
Up-to-date evidence about levels and trends in disease and injury incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability (YLDs) is an essential input into global, regional, and national health policies. In the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013 (GBD 2013), we estimated these quantities for acute and chronic diseases and injuries for 188 countries between 1990 and 2013.
Faith-based organizations (FBOs) have been active in the health sector for decades. Recently, the role of FBOs in global health has been of increased interest. However, little is known about the magnitude and trends in development assistance for health (DAH) channeled through these organizations.
Using a species distribution model, the locations of confirmed human and animal infections with Lassa virus (LASV) were used to generate a probabilistic surface of zoonotic transmission potential across sub-Saharan Africa.
Cancer poses a major threat to public health worldwide, and incidence rates have increased in most countries since 1990. The trend is a particular threat to developing nations with health systems that are ill-equipped to deal with complex and expensive cancer treatments. The annual update on the Global Burden of Cancer will provide all stakeholders with timely estimates to guide policy efforts in cancer prevention, screening, treatment, and palliation.
Seroepidemiological monitoring of population immunity to vaccine-preventable diseases is critical to prevent future outbreaks. This study validates a novel technique for measuring measles-specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) in capillary DBS using a commercial ELISA.
