What are the main differences between rich and poor countries with respect to causes of death?
In high-income countries more than two-thirds of all people live beyond the age of 70 and die of chronic diseases: cardiovascular disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, cancers, diabetes or dementia. Lung infection remains the only leading infectious cause of death. In middle-income countries, nearly half of all people live to the age of 70 and chronic diseases are the major killers, just as they are in high-income countries. Unlike in high-income countries, however, HIV/AIDS, complications of pregnancy and childbirth and road traffic accidents also are leading causes of death. In low-income countries less than a quarter of all people reach the age of 70, and nearly a third of all deaths are among children under 14. Although cardiovascular diseases together represent the leading cause of death in these countries, infectious diseases (above all HIV/AIDS, lower respiratory infection, tuberculosis, diarrhoeal diseases and malaria) together claim more lives. Complications of pregnancy
