Global Burden of Infectious Diseases

• Main Author: Michaud, C.M.
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 2009
• Subjects: Article; Daly; Avian flu
• Online Access: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7150259/; https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-012373944-5.00185-1

Systematic efforts to quantify and monitor the burden of specific health conditions in populations, at the national level, started in the mid-1950s for malaria, poliomyelitis, and influenza in the United States. Comprehensive surveillance of morbidity and mortality for dozens of conditions has since been well established in the United States and in other industrialized countries. However, despite the clear need for epidemiological data to inform health policies, reliable and comprehensive health statistics are not available in many developing countries. International efforts to assess and monitor the burden of certain diseases have been limited in the past to a small number of infectious diseases in the context of global eradication programs – smallpox, poliomyelitis, guinea worm, and, more recently, HIV/AIDS, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), and avian flu influenza A (H5N1). The Global Burden of Disease Study (GBD), published in 1996, filled an important gap in our knowledge of population health status. It created a common metric, the disability-adjusted life year (DALY), to estimate morbidity and mortality for eight regions that collectively span the world’s population, generating comparable information on incidence and prevalence in global health. However, patterns of disease, disability, and risk factors have since changed significantly and new data on their distribution are available. Furthermore, the unprecedented money and attention now pouring into international health has made an accurate assessment of global health patterns a matter of utmost urgency. The new Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors (GBD 2005) project, which began in 2007, represents the first major effort at a systematic revision of estimates in health for every region in the world comprehensively, and will ensure that that the global health community bases its research and policies on complete, valid, and reliable information. Burden of disease estimates provided in this article are for 2001 – the year for which ...