ASTUDY OF DISEASES IN THE DEVELOPING WORLD

In the developing world, the leading infectious causes of death are respiratory tract infectious diarrheal diseases, tuberculosis, malaria, and aids which together represent>90% of deaths. The remaining 10% are due to tropical diseases and various other infections. Tropical diseases have a specific presentation and epidemiology in elderly patients. Infectious diseases with a world wide distribution impact elderly patients in the developing world in a specific manner, which is most obvious with respect to human immunodeficiency virus and tuberculosis but is also true with respect to trivial manifestations of infection, such as diarrhea and pneumonia. Malnutrition contributes in a major way to the immunodeficiency of elderly patients in the developing world. Poorly controlled us of antimicrobial drugs leads to multidrug resistant microorganisms which together with the limited resources available for drug treatment makes appropriate treatment of infections in elderly patients will have an increasing impact on the public health and economy of developing countries.