By Andrew Trounson

In rural Myanmar, the local midwife is at your side at the start and end of your life.

Not only is she responsible for delivering babies and registering them, she is also responsible for registering deaths and cause of death. And it’s all done the old-fashioned way, using scribbled notes that are sent back to the bureaucrats on bicycles or by mail.

By Christopher J.L. Murray

We’re living with a virus-like disease sweeping our nation. Nearly every community is affected. The rates of death rise year after year. Between 1990 and 2015, the percentages of death more than quadrupled. We lost more people than the population of Pittsburgh. 

It’s the second-leading killer of men in their thirties, making the disease an even bigger threat to their health than being murdered with firearms. 

This killer sweeping the nation: opioid use.

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By Dan Franck

A recent report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology states that one-third of all deaths worldwide are from cardiovascular disease (CVD). In 2015 alone, 18 million people died of heart and vascular disease.

Dr. Gregory Roth, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Global Health at the University of Washington calls it "an alarming threat to global health."

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By Robert McSweeney

Up to three quarters of the world’s population could be at risk from deadly heat extremes by the end of the century, a new study suggests.

The research finds that just under a third of the global population is currently exposed to heat extremes that have resulted in deaths in the past. This will increase as global temperatures rise.

Keeping global warming to less than 2C above pre-industrial levels would limit the number at risk from potentially lethal heatwaves to around half of the global population.