How the burden of global diseases has changed in the past two decades
A NEW series of papers, published in the Lancet on December 13th, provides the most complete portrait of global health ever painted. Led by Christopher Murray of the University of Washington, the study quantifies who is dying from what; where and when they are dying; why they got ill in the first place; and whether those who live longer are living sicker. Different regions suffer different afflictions, but the data reveal a clear shift. The good news is that people are living longer. Between 1970 and 2010, the most basic metric for health—life expectancy at birth—rose from 56.4 years to 67.5 years for men and from 61.2 years to 73.3 years for women. Remarkable progress has been made in the fight against infectious disease, and mortality rates for children have dropped. The bad news is that, as people live longer, they are developing all kinds of other problems. DALYs, or disability-adjusted life years, are a particularly telling measure. They represent the sum of years lost to illness and premature death. In 1990 infectious disease, malnutrition and ailments of mothers and newborns accounted for 47% of DALYs (see pie charts below). In 2010 they comprised just 35%, with chronic diseases accounting for 54% and injuries for 11%. The toll of chronic diseases looks set to rise, as populations age and become wealthier. Infectious disease remains a big problem in sub-Saharan Africa and south Asia. For the rest of the world, the main concerns are the ailments you do not catch.
Read more in this week's print edition here. See more charts and interactive graphics here.
日線圖 
消息不靈通 
二○一二年十二月一十四日，14:43 Economist.com 
 計時器 
如何全球疾病負擔在過去的二十年裡發生了變化 

一系列新的論文，發表在12月13日的Lancet期刊，提供全球健康的最完整的人像畫過。由華盛頓大學的克里斯托弗·穆雷的帶領下，研究量化了誰是從什麼奄奄一息;在那裡，當他們面臨死亡;他們為什麼得了絕症擺在首位;是否那些誰活得更長居住病情加重。不同地區遭受不同的煩惱，但數據揭示了明顯轉變。好消息是，人們的壽命越來越長。從1970年到2010年，最基本的度量預期健康壽命出生時，上升至56.4年67.5歲，男性從61.2年73.3歲，女性。顯著的進展已經取得了對傳染病的鬥爭，死亡率為孩子已經下降。壞消息是，隨著人們壽命的延長，他們正在開發的各種其他問題。殘疾調整生命年或傷殘調整生命年，是一個特別有說服力的措施。他們代表了失去多年的疾病和過早死亡的總和。 1990年，感染性疾病，母親和新生兒營養不良和疾病佔傷殘調整生命年（見下文餅圖）的47％。 2010年，他們由只有35％，而慢性疾病佔54％，傷害的11％。慢性疾病的人數似乎將上升，隨著人口老齡化和日益富裕。傳染病仍然在撒哈拉以南非洲和南亞的一個大問題。對於世界其他國家，主要關注的是你沒有抓住疾病。 

詳情請閱讀本週的印刷版在這裡。看到更多的圖表和圖形交互這裡。