Burden of Disease Research Unit

How does South Africa compare with other countries?

It can be seen from Table 1 below that the burden of disease for South Africa, measured in DALYs/100 000 population (Initial Burden of Disease estimates for South Africa, 2000 (pdf format, 457 kb)), is high relative to all other regions of the world excepting the African region (GBD 2000 Results (version 1)) .

Compared with the rest of Africa, South Africa has similar DALYs/100 000 rates for HIV/AIDs but lower rates for other communicable, maternal, perinatal and nutritional conditions. It has higher burdens due to cardiovascular diseases, respiratory diseases and diabetes mellitus than the rest of Africa but a comparable burden due to non-communicable diseases overall. The overall burden due to injuries in South Africa is similar to the African region but the intentional injuries burden is higher for South Africa and the unintentional injury burden is lower.

Compared with other regions of the world, South Africa has a higher overall burden of disease measured by DALYs/100 000, arising from the high burdens due to HIV/AIDS, injuries and respiratory diseases. The burden due to diabetes mellitus in South Africa is higher than for any of the regions, excepting the American region.

URL: World Health Organisation, 2001. GBD 2000 Results (version 1). Available at http://www.who.int/evidence/bod. Accessed April 2003.WHO, 2001.

Table 1: Estimated DALYs per 100 000 for WHO world regions and South Africa, 2000.

* Source : WHO, 2001.
# Cot death accounted for 36 DALYs /100 000 in South Africa and was included under non-communicable diseases

Authors: Dr Rosana Norman, Prof Debbie Bradshaw, Michelle Schneider, Desiree Pieterse and Dr Pam Groenewald