The Lancet presents the most recent update on the global, regional, and national causes of death. Against a backdrop of increased global improvements in life-expectancy, death rates for some causes – including drug use and liver cancer – continue to rise.

Far from offering suitable birth control methods to men and women at different points in their lives, India’s programme focuses on female tubectomy carried out in substandard camps.

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Between now and 2030, every country will experience population ageing—a trend that is both pronounced and historically unprecedented. Over the past six decades, countries of the world had experienced only a slight increase in the share of people aged 60 years and older, from 8% to 10%. But in the next four decades, this group is expected to rise to 22% of the total population—a jump from 800 million to 2 billion people. Evidence suggests that cohorts entering older age now are healthier than previous ones.

23% of the total global burden of disease is attributable to disorders in people aged 60 years and older. Although the proportion of the burden arising from older people (≥60 years) is highest in high-income regions, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) per head are 40% higher in low-income and middle-income regions, accounted for by the increased burden per head of population arising from cardiovascular diseases, and sensory, respiratory, and infectious disorders.

India is ramping up its response to the nation’s high burden of mental health problems with a new policy to scale up care but questions remain over implementation.

1366 - 1374Bangladesh is one of the only nine Countdown countries that are on track to achieve the primary target of Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5 by 2015. It is also the only low-income or middle-income country with two large, nationally-representative, high-quality household surveys focused on the measurement of maternal mortality and service use.

The objective of the study was to determine the incidence of – and illnesses commonly associated with – catastrophic household expenditure on health in Nepal.

The objective of the study was to estimate the impact on maternal and child mortality after eliminating user fees for pregnant women and for children less than five years of age in Burkina Faso.