Epidemiology of respiratory disease in Malawi

The epidemiology of respiratory disease in rural Malawi is largely unknown. Published studies have concentrated on the most prevalent diseases causing admission to hospital in urban areas. An important exception to this rule is the large body of published literature on tuberculosis in children and adults. The purpose of this article is to review what is known about infectious and non-infectious respiratory disease in children and adults, and to highlight the important questions that require new studies to provide answers. In each section, infectious and non-infectious respiratory disease will be considered in turn as illustrated in Table 1. Published literature was searched using Pubmed searches of the term “Malawi” (269 hits), “Africa and lung”(697 hits), and by consultation with local specialists. Grey literature was sought through the Documentation Center of the Ministry of Health, the UN Resource Center, the College of Medicine “Malawiana collection” and by contacting the Health Management Information Un it of the Ministry of Health.