Which Transmissible Diseases are the Biggest Health Burden in Every Country?

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Posted by Julia Tortorice

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A wide variety of transmissible diseases are passed from one person to another within countries and around the world, but which of these contagious diseases is the biggest health burden in each country? Using burden of disease estimates from the World Heath Organization's (WHO) Global Health Estimates (GHE), we analyzed 40 different communicable diseases to see which types of disease caused the highest loss of daily adjusted life years (DALYs) in each of the countries around the world. DALYs are a common health metric because they combine the burden of mortality and morbidity to determine the sum of years of healthy life that are lost due to the disease in a country’s population.

The NYRequirements.com team analyzed a wide variety of infectious, parasitic, and respiratory diseases, including HIV/AIDS, STDs, childhood-cluster diseases, hepatitis, intestinal nematode infections, as well as diseases like malaria, dengue, and yellow fever. The respiratory diseases were divided into lower respiratory infections, such as pneumonia or bronchitis, and upper respiratory infections, which can include the common cold, sinusitis, or pharyngitis. Out of the 40 communicable diseases included in our study, only six were found to be the biggest health burden throughout our list of countries: lower respiratory infections, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, malaria, and measles. Lower respiratory infections were found to be the biggest health burden in a majority of countries. Explore our map to see which countries are the most affected by these six common types of transmissible diseases.

Which Transmissible Disease Is the Biggest Health Burden on the World?

Lower respiratory diseases are the biggest health burden on the world, and out of the many communicable diseases analyzed, they were found to have the highest number of DALYs lost in 131 countries around the world. Nigeria is is the most affected by lower respiratory illnesses, with 16,230 daily adjusted life years lost to these respiratory diseases. The total number of DALYs lost worldwide due to lower respiratory illnesses is 104,622 years of healthy life.

The next most burdensome transmissible disease was found to be HIV/AIDS, which is the biggest health burden in 28 different countries. In total, HIV and AIDS have cost the world’s population more than 40,000 years of healthy life.

Transmissible Diseases That Are the Biggest Health Burdens Around the World

Lower Respiratory Infections are the biggest health burden in 131 countries.
HIV/AIDS is the biggest health burden in 28 countries.
Tuberculosis is the biggest health burden in ten countries.
Diarrheal diseases are the biggest health burden in five countries.
Malaria is the biggest health burden in four countries.
Measles is the biggest health burden in two countries.

How Is the Health Burden of a Disease Measured?

The global burden of disease is calculated using disability adjusted life years (DALY), a commonly used universal health metric that combines mortality and morbidity to determine the number of years of healthy life each population is losing. It includes the potential years of life lost due to early death as well as the years of healthy life that are lost due to being in a state of poor health or disability from the disease. One DALY equals one year of full health per 100,000 people. Comparing the DALYs lost to different common diseases shows which health problems cause the most suffering in each country’s population and is also a helpful metric to use as a way to compare the overall health of countries around the world.

The Countries With the Most DALYs Lost to a Transmissible Disease

Rank	Country	Transmissible Disease	DALYs Lost
1	India	Tuberculosis	24,836.1
2	Nigeria	Lower Respiratory Infections	16,230.4
3	Pakistan	Lower Respiratory Infections	5,861.8
4	Indonesia	Tuberculosis	4,985.2
5	South Africa	HIV/AIDS	4,637.9
6	Democratic Republic of the Congo	Lower Respiratory Infections	4,586.6
7	China	Lower Respiratory Infections	4,209.4
8	Ethiopia	Lower Respiratory Infections	3,267.5
9	Mozambique	HIV/AIDS	3,163.5
10	Philippines	Lower Respiratory Infections	2,166.6
11	Brazil	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,895.0
12	Bangladesh	Tuberculosis	1,853.6
13	Angola	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,777.6
14	Chad	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,731.4
15	Tanzania	HIV/AIDS	1,693.7
16	Somalia	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,547.7
17	Niger	Malaria	1,502.3
18	Kenya	HIV/AIDS	1,395.9
19	Uganda	HIV/AIDS	1,379.5
20	Côte d'Ivoire	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,364.6
21	Burkina Faso	Malaria	1,305.3
22	Cameroon	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,219.4
23	Zimbabwe	HIV/AIDS	1,201.7
24	Mali	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,166.6
25	Zambia	HIV/AIDS	1,118.9
26	Russia	HIV/AIDS	1,114.1
27	Japan	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,108.5
28	United States of America	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,021.7
29	Egypt	Lower Respiratory Infections	1,007.0
30	Myanmar	Tuberculosis	1,006.7
31	Yemen	Lower Respiratory Infections	891.5
32	Sudan	Lower Respiratory Infections	887.2
33	Malawi	HIV/AIDS	806.3
34	Madagascar	Measles	800.1
35	Guinea	Lower Respiratory Infections	796.8
36	Ghana	HIV/AIDS	789.6
37	North Korea	Tuberculosis	776.5
38	Mexico	Lower Respiratory Infections	739.1
39	Vietnam	Lower Respiratory Infections	735.6
40	South Sudan	Lower Respiratory Infections	715.5
41	Thailand	HIV/AIDS	715.2
42	Nepal	Tuberculosis	689.1
43	Argentina	Lower Respiratory Infections	641.6
44	Benin	Lower Respiratory Infections	635.8
45	Sierra Leone	Malaria	614.1
46	Malaysia	Lower Respiratory Infections	507.4
47	Burundi	Lower Respiratory Infections	495.7
48	United Kingdom	Lower Respiratory Infections	481.3
49	Iran	Lower Respiratory Infections	438.7
50	Togo	Malaria	430.3
51	Senegal	Lower Respiratory Infections	406.6
52	Haiti	Lower Respiratory Infections	406.1
53	Iraq	Lower Respiratory Infections	402.0
54	Venezuela	HIV/AIDS	340.0
55	Peru	Lower Respiratory Infections	329.6
56	South Korea	Lower Respiratory Infections	328.0
57	Guatemala	Lower Respiratory Infections	325.1
58	Central African Republic	Lower Respiratory Infections	318.9
59	Poland	Lower Respiratory Infections	313.8
60	Algeria	Lower Respiratory Infections	309.9
61	Cambodia	Lower Respiratory Infections	303.8
62	Ukraine	HIV/AIDS	301.8
63	Lesotho	HIV/AIDS	295.6
64	Germany	Lower Respiratory Infections	284.7
65	Morocco	Lower Respiratory Infections	276.7
66	Botswana	HIV/AIDS	275.4
67	Rwanda	Lower Respiratory Infections	270.9
68	Congo	HIV/AIDS	266.4
69	Turkey	Lower Respiratory Infections	263.9
70	Colombia	Lower Respiratory Infections	263.4
71	Uzbekistan	Lower Respiratory Infections	253.8
72	Papua New Guinea	Tuberculosis	251.9
73	Liberia	Measles	223.8
74	Romania	Lower Respiratory Infections	222.2
75	Tajikistan	Lower Respiratory Infections	213.2
76	Syria	Diarrheal diseases	212.0
77	France	Lower Respiratory Infections	210.4
78	Saudi Arabia	Lower Respiratory Infections	205.4
79	Bolivia	Lower Respiratory Infections	192.3
80	Namibia	HIV/AIDS	174.2
81	Italy	Lower Respiratory Infections	171.7
82	Mauritania	Lower Respiratory Infections	171.6
83	Turkmenistan	HIV/AIDS	152.2
84	Spain	Lower Respiratory Infections	151.6
85	Laos	Lower Respiratory Infections	143.4
86	Eswatini	HIV/AIDS	143.1
87	Ecuador	Lower Respiratory Infections	133.1
88	Cuba	Lower Respiratory Infections	130.6
89	Kazakhstan	Lower Respiratory Infections	128.5
90	Eritrea	Lower Respiratory Infections	125.8
91	Sri Lanka	Lower Respiratory Infections	114.6
92	Equatorial Guinea	HIV/AIDS	113.2
93	Canada	Lower Respiratory Infections	97.1
94	Dominican Republic	HIV/AIDS	97.0
95	Gabon	Tuberculosis	91.9
96	Greece	Lower Respiratory Infections	84.3
97	Guinea-Bissau	HIV/AIDS	84.1
98	Azerbaijan	Lower Respiratory Infections	80.6
99	Portugal	Lower Respiratory Infections	78.8
100	Singapore	Lower Respiratory Infections	74.8
101	Gambia	Lower Respiratory Infections	72.3
102	Czechia	Lower Respiratory Infections	65.0
103	Belgium	Lower Respiratory Infections	62.9
104	Chile	Lower Respiratory Infections	58.7
105	Netherlands	Lower Respiratory Infections	56.3
106	Honduras	Lower Respiratory Infections	54.4
107	Australia	Lower Respiratory Infections	53.2
108	El Salvador	Lower Respiratory Infections	52.6
109	Tunisia	Lower Respiratory Infections	52.6
110	Paraguay	Lower Respiratory Infections	52.2
111	Timor-Leste	Tuberculosis	50.3
112	Nicaragua	Lower Respiratory Infections	47.5
113	Kyrgyzstan	Lower Respiratory Infections	47.4
114	Jordan	Lower Respiratory Infections	44.2
115	Libya	Tuberculosis	42.5
116	Moldova	Lower Respiratory Infections	40.4
117	Comoros	Lower Respiratory Infections	37.4
118	Slovakia	Lower Respiratory Infections	36.7
119	Jamaica	HIV/AIDS	35.9
120	Serbia	Lower Respiratory Infections	35.9
121	Bulgaria	Lower Respiratory Infections	33.8
122	Panama	HIV/AIDS	32.9
123	Djibouti	Lower Respiratory Infections	30.5
124	Sweden	Lower Respiratory Infections	30.3
125	Belarus	Lower Respiratory Infections	28.4
126	Hungary	Lower Respiratory Infections	27.5
127	Denmark	Lower Respiratory Infections	25.5
128	Mongolia	Lower Respiratory Infections	23.7
129	Armenia	Lower Respiratory Infections	23.2
130	United Arab Emirates	Lower Respiratory Infections	22.5
131	Oman	Lower Respiratory Infections	22.4
132	Georgia	Lower Respiratory Infections	22.2
133	Lebanon	Lower Respiratory Infections	21.1
134	Switzerland	Lower Respiratory Infections	21.0
135	Austria	Lower Respiratory Infections	19.3
136	Israel	Lower Respiratory Infections	19.3
137	Uruguay	Lower Respiratory Infections	19.2
138	Costa Rica	Lower Respiratory Infections	18.6
139	Norway	Lower Respiratory Infections	18.3
140	Ireland	Lower Respiratory Infections	14.6
141	Solomon Islands	Lower Respiratory Infections	14.5
142	Lithuania	Lower Respiratory Infections	13.9
143	Guyana	HIV/AIDS	13.5
144	Croatia	Lower Respiratory Infections	13.4
145	New Zealand	Lower Respiratory Infections	11.5
146	Fiji	Lower Respiratory Infections	11.3
147	Kuwait	Lower Respiratory Infections	10.8
148	Latvia	Lower Respiratory Infections	10.7
149	Albania	Lower Respiratory Infections	10.0
150	Trinidad and Tobago	HIV/AIDS	9.6
151	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Lower Respiratory Infections	8.3
152	Mauritius	Lower Respiratory Infections	8.1
153	Bhutan	Diarrheal diseases	7.6
154	Bahamas	HIV/AIDS	6.9
155	Suriname	HIV/AIDS	6.8
156	Vanuatu	Lower Respiratory Infections	6.6
157	Finland	Lower Respiratory Infections	6.5
158	Belize	HIV/AIDS	6.4
159	Cabo Verde	Lower Respiratory Infections	6.1
160	Estonia	Lower Respiratory Infections	5.9
161	Sao Tome and Principe	Lower Respiratory Infections	4.9
162	Slovenia	Lower Respiratory Infections	4.3
163	North Macedonia	Lower Respiratory Infections	4.2
164	Qatar	Lower Respiratory Infections	3.5
165	Kiribati	Lower Respiratory Infections	3.3
166	Bahrain	Diarrheal diseases	2.9
167	Barbados	Lower Respiratory Infections	2.8
168	Micronesia	Lower Respiratory Infections	2.6
169	Malta	Lower Respiratory Infections	2.3
170	Samoa	Lower Respiratory Infections	1.9
171	Brunei	Lower Respiratory Infections	1.7
172	Seychelles	Lower Respiratory Infections	1.7
173	Montenegro	Lower Respiratory Infections	1.6
174	Cyprus	Diarrheal diseases	1.5
175	Saint Lucia	Lower Respiratory Infections	1.4
176	Luxembourg	Lower Respiratory Infections	1.3
177	Maldives	Diarrheal diseases	1.1
178	Tonga	Lower Respiratory Infections	1.0
179	Grenada	Lower Respiratory Infections	0.9
180	Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Lower Respiratory Infections	0.9
181	Iceland	Lower Respiratory Infections	0.8
182	Antigua and Barbuda	Lower Respiratory Infections	0.4

Learn more about the transmission of infectious pathogens as well as prevention of exposure to these pathogens through our Infection Control and Barrier Precautions course.

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