Epidemiology
The World Health Organization collects information on global deaths by International Classification of Disease (ICD) code categories. The following table lists the top infectious disease killers which caused more than 100,000 deaths in 2002 (estimated). 1993 data is included for comparison.
| Rank | Cause of death | Deaths 2002 (in millions) |
Percentage of all deaths |
Deaths 1993 (in millions) |
1993 Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| N/A | All infectious diseases | 14.7 | 25.9% | 16.4 | 32.2% |
| 1 | Lower respiratory infections | 3.9 | 6.9% | 4.1 | 1 |
| 2 | HIV/AIDS | 2.8 | 4.9% | 0.7 | 7 |
| 3 | Diarrheal diseases | 1.8 | 3.2% | 3.0 | 2 |
| 4 | Tuberculosis (TB) | 1.6 | 2.7% | 2.7 | 3 |
| 5 | Malaria | 1.3 | 2.2% | 2.0 | 4 |
| 6 | Measles | 0.6 | 1.1% | 1.1 | 5 |
| 7 | Pertussis | 0.29 | 0.5% | 0.36 | 7 |
| 8 | Tetanus | 0.21 | 0.4% | 0.15 | 12 |
| 9 | Meningitis | 0.17 | 0.3% | 0.25 | 8 |
| 10 | Syphilis | 0.16 | 0.3% | 0.19 | 11 |
| 11 | Hepatitis B | 0.10 | 0.2% | 0.93 | 6 |
| 12-17 | Tropical diseases (6) | 0.13 | 0.2% | 0.53 | 9, 10, 16-18 |
The top three single agent/disease killers are HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria. While the number of deaths due to nearly every disease have decreased, deaths due to HIV/AIDS have increased fourfold. Childhood diseases include pertussis, poliomyelitis, diphtheria, measles and tetanus. Children also make up a large percentage of lower respiratory and diarrheal deaths.
Read more about this topic: Infectious Disease