2.4 What is the ‘Global Burden of Disease’?

Zika virus image, By CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith (http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=20538) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

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This is a digitally colorized transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Zika virus, which is a member of the family Flaviviridae. Virus particles, here colored red, are 40 nm in diameter, with an outer envelope, and an inner dense core.

Zika virus image, By CDC/ Cynthia Goldsmith (http://phil.cdc.gov/phil/details.asp?pid=20538) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons

In the previous section we introduced the term “Global Burden of Disease”(GBD), so what does it mean? 

Global burden of disease can refer to the overall impact of diseases and injuries at the individual level, at a societal level, or to the economic costs of diseases. Specifically, the GBD refers to a WHO and World Bank study published in the World Development Report 1993 that measured the total loss of health resulting from diseases and injuries. Updated in 1996 and again in 2000, the study generates the most comprehensive and consistent set of estimates of mortality (another term for death) and morbidity (another term for illness) by age, sex and region. When the report was written, infectious disease accounted for 43% of the global burden.