Showing papers by "Christopher J L Murray published in 1990"

Adult mortality in developing countries.

Abstract: For the past decade, the international health community has focused on the burden of childhood mortality and morbidity in developing countries. As a consequence, there has been little comprehensive, as contrasted with disease-specific, interest in the health problems of adults. Underlying this lack of attention is the widespread belief that once a person reaches adulthood, there is little difference in mortality experience between developing and industrialized countries. Some would probably go so far as to suggest that adult mortality should be lower in some developing countries because of the rarity of certain ‘western’ risk factors for chronic diseases. The reality is different: adult mortality, as well as child mortality, is much higher in developing than in industrialized countries and represents an important target for development policy and intervention. Adults may be defined with reference to the roles that they play in society. They are the parents, the workers, and the leaders in all communities. Adults are also the providers and care-givers for children and the elderly. A functional definition of adulthood, while appealing, is not well suited to quantitative analysis. We have, therefore, defined adulthood as the population aged 15 to 59 years. This definition is consistent with the United Nations defmition of the ‘aged’, which includes the population over age 60. The age-span 15 to 59 includes those age-groups in which, in industrialized countries, we expect mortality to remain quite low. For most of us, deaths before age 60 are premature and should be prevented. With this definition of adulthood, 56% of the developing world’s population are adults; they number a httle over 2x 10 ; and 32% of them live in China. According to World Bank estimates, in the developing world as a whole, 38% of deaths occur in children aged ti years, while 27% occur in adults (15-59). To adjust for the expected age-distribution of deaths in a low mortality country, we can calculate avoidable deaths. These are deaths that would not occur if the mortality rates of a specified low mortality reference population applied to developing countries. Japanese death rates in 1987 have been used as a reference-Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world. According to these computations, there are 8 million avoidable adult deaths each year in the

Autoimmune pancytopenia following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation.

Abstract: A 47-year-old female developed autoimmune hemolytic anemia, autoimmune neutropenia, and autoimmune thrombocytopenia 19 months following allogeneic bone marrow transplantation for chronic myelogenous leukemia. Treatment with high-dose corticosteroids resulted in marked improvement in all three cell lines.

A study of financial resources devoted to research on health problems of developing countries.

Abstract: The Commission on Health Research for Development is an independent, international commission composed of 12 leaders from the fields of health research, social science research and development policy. Chaired by John Evans, the other Commissioners are Gelia Castillo, vice-chair, F. H. Abed, Sune Bergstrom, Doris Calloway, Esmat Ezzat, Demissie Habte, Walter Kamba, Adetokumbo Lucas, Adolfo Martinez-Palomo, Saburo Okita and V. Ramalingaswami. The Commission began its work in November 1987, charged with analysing the strengths, weaknesses and gaps in current research on health problems of developing countries, and making proposals and promoting action for improvement. The Commission is sponsored by a variety of foundations, bilateral donor agencies, and international organizations. The Commission's report was published in the spring of 1990. As part of the work of the Commission Secretariat, we have undertaken a study of financial resources devoted to research on the health problems of developing countries. The study which began in May 1988 has three objectives: (i) To describe the current pattern of funding for research on the health problems of developing countries. (ii) To provide a baseline against which future trends and/or new programmes can be measured. (iii) To explore the possibility of an ongoing information system on research on health problems of developing countries.