Commentary: Reliable measurement of the causes of mortality in developing countries

Public health in industrialized countries was transformed when vital statistics on age sex and socioeconomic distribution of deaths by cause became available in the 19th and 20th centuries. These statistics have shown good news such as the large declines in under-5 mortality and tuberculosis mortality during the 20th century. They have also raised alarm; in the mid 1940s a dramatic increase in lung cancer deaths in British and American men after World War II led to a great deal of research on smoking. In the early 1980s routine mortality data from San Francisco revealed an exceptional increase in immune-related deaths among young men and signalled the start of the American HIV-1 epidemic. Routinely collected data have helped to spur further research and public health action and contributed to the enormous increases in life expectancy in the 20th century. (excerpt)