BIBLIOGRAPHIC INPUT SHEET TEMPORARY Patterns of mortality ...

Chapter VIII
Infectious Diseases*
Infectious and parasitic diseases continue
to be important causes of mortality
in childhood in many parts of the world.
The Investigation reveals that in nearly all
the projects in Latin America sizable reductions
in death rates for certain of these
diseases could be attained if vaccination
programs were conducted and other public
health measures applied. Moreover, evidence
was uncovered to show that highly
vulnerable infants who recover from one
infectious disease often (lie from another,
One example of such causal interrelationships
is that of a child who, after a prolonged
siege of whooping cough that weakened
his nutritional state, acquired measles
and finally succunbed to pulmonary coinplications.
Nutritional deficiency was one
of ti multiple causes involved in this
dth. As the Investigation findings have
clearly shown, associated as well as underlying
causes must be taken into account as
a basis for designing health programs.
Chapter IX on nutritional dtficiency
contains data showing interrelationships of
causes of death. In the present chapter the
infectious diseases are considered printipally
as underlying causes, though for a few
The name of the Section in the Classification is
infective and parasitic diseases. Since the number of
deaths due to the parasitic diseases is relatively small,
these causes are referred to here as infectious diseases,
as a short title.
137
diseases their involvement as associated
causes is analyzed as well.
Figure 69 and Table 70 show the role of
the group of infectious diseases as underlying
causes in children under 5 years of age.
Wh;ben the death rate for all causes is high,
the rate for infectious diseases is usually
high also. In the rural municipios of El
Salvador, for example, where the rate for
all causes in this age group was 5,049.0 per
100,000 I)opulation, that for infectious diseases
was 3,317.8, or two-thirds the rate for
all deaths under 5 years. For the areas with
Fe,. 69. Mortality from All Cuses and from
Infectious Dise.,ses in Children Under 5 Years of
Age in 24 Areas of 15 Projects.
P,
-MV.
SUJunll A'
co ""
IMMK,
1 me..
SAOPaIlo
DEATHSPER o00.000 POPULATION
0 IOO 2000 3000 4000 5000
i
77=1
C, -
MIL
1.PNil S0ILIm MWA Ira::: ---­
ium0
SAMJuMITI~f1
mitifiA Pltio icar
tIOS sl.M"
iIAIHHIAL DISEASE
&MrMC5Mo
EIASLES
MEUI SttUIlS = 1OHI INFECTIOUS
MO
=OTHER CAUSES