Medicine, Death, and Research

A friend of mine, who is a physician, sent me this email. I found it fascinating, and thought I would post it.

Hi Michael,

I went to a lecture on third world medical care this week by a doctor from GW University. He gave the 5 leading causes of death in the world today:

1. Diarrhea

2. Acute Respiratory Diseases

3. Malnutriton

4. Malaria

5. Measles

I was surprised that malaria is number 4. All 5 are directly related to poverty. What we think of as the main causes of mortality, heart disease, stroke and cancer are further down. 90% of medical research is directed to 10% of all disease.