Counting the dead is one of the world’s best investments to reduce premature mortality

Vital statistics on causes of death (COD) by age, gender, social status and geography have transformed health in developed countries. Robust COD information, especially adult deaths, remains uncommon in most developing countries as most deaths do not occur in hospitals. I recommend five low-cost options rapidly improving COD sys- tems in countries with inadequate sys- tems. Implementing these improvements over the next few years is feasible at low cost given advances in information tech- nology and data capture. COD systems would transform disease control priori- ties, approaching in quality and matching in relevance what has taken more than a century to produce in many developed countries. Counting the dead is one of the world's best investments to improve global health. INTRODUCTION In 1869, the Sanitary Commissioner of India wrote for sanitary purposes it is indispensable to know the relative mortality in small and, as far as possible, well-defined tracts to ascertain the death rates in each of these com- munities; to see how far this arises from preventable causes; and to apply the remedies 1 .