Using published data, a comparison was made in fifteen developing countries of the number of deaths from road accidents and the deaths from specific diseases normally associated with the third world. It was found that road accidents accounted for almost 17 per cent of the total number of deaths studied, a value exceeded only by deaths from enteritis (and other diarrhoeal diseases). the trends in the number of deaths per head of population in four countries over the period 1960 - 72 were calculated. It was found that whilst the rates for infectious, intestinal and respiratory diseases decreased, the death rate for road accidents increased over this period. An analysis of the medical records of the three major hospitals in Nairobi showed that there were more in-patients receiving treatment for road accidents in 1974 than for all but one of the groups of diseases thought to be of concern in developing countries. In two of the hospitals studied, the treatment of road accident cases accounted for over 13,000 in-patient days, over 5 per cent of the total available. (Author/publisher)
Abstract