JH-IIRU Releases a Statement on the Publication of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010

Recently, a consortium of seven partners led by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle and including Johns Hopkins University, Harvard University, and WHO released the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010).

This study, a systematic and comprehensive assessment of data on global disease, injuries and risk over two decades was published in the Lancet. It consists of seven articles, each containing a wealth of data on different diseases and represents a collaboration of 486 scientists from 302 institutions in 50 countries.

One of the main findings from GBD 2010 are that huge gaps remain the progress of public health for some regions of the world. For example, while fewer people are dying from infectious diseases such as HIV and malaria, deaths from road traffic injuries have increased by almost half. 

The study also recognizes the increasing burden of all types of disability, specifically from trauma, and its strain on populations.

The Johns Hopkins International Injury Research Unit is dedicated to identifying effective solutions to the growing burden of injuries in low- and middle-income populations, influencing public policy and practice and advancing the field of injury prevention throughout the world. The Unit recognizes the findings from GBD 2010, renews our commitment to work on health priorities for populations around the world and calls on those in the health and research communities to do the same.

You can access the GBD 2010, which has been published in a special issue of the Lancet, here: http://www.thelancet.com/themed/global-burden-of-disease