The global burden of disease: 2004 update, published by the WHO
in 2008 (1), provides estimates of mortality
and burden of disease by cause for all regions of the world in 2004. The data in
this publication, which were used to generate this figure, indicate that
infectious and parasitic diseases were the second leading cause of death in the
world in 2004, after cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, approximately 17
million and 9.5 million deaths were a result of cardiovascular diseases and
infectious and parasitic diseases, respectively. Among those who died of
infectious and parasitic diseases, diarrheal diseases were the leading cause of
death, closely followed by HIV/AIDS. *These numbers exclude deaths from liver
cancer and cirrhosis resulting from chronic HBV infection.