What is the most common preventable cause of death?
In the developed world the most common cause of death overall is coronary heart disease. This is preventable with simple management and prompt treatmnent if necessary. However, worldwide, by far the biggest preventable cause of death, which nobody has actually guessed correctly is….diarrhoea. The deaths attributed to diarrhoea number in the millions every single year, far more than any cancer, heart disease or stroke. In fact 1 in every 20 deaths is caused by diarrhoea. Simple and cheap rehydration therapy is all that is needed in the acute setting to prevent death and is far more cheaper than CHD/cancer management, yet because the majority of cases are in Africa and the like with poor infrastructure and healthcare systems, millions die every year.
