Cause-specific adult mortality: evidence from community-based surveillance--selected sites, Tanzania, 1992-1998

Mortality data are a standard information resource to guide public health action. Because Tanzania did not have a representative mortality surveillance system, in 1992 the Adult Morbidity and Mortality Project (AMMP) was established by the Muhimbili University College of Health Sciences, the Ministry of Health of Tanzania (MOH), and the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, United Kingdom. The purpose of the surveillance system is to provide cause-specific death rates among adults in three areas of Tanzania and to link community-based mortality surveillance to evidence-based planning for health care. This report describes the results of AMMP surveillance during 1992-1998, which indicated that human immunodeficiency virus infection/acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) was the leading cause of death reported by decedents' relatives and caretakers for adults of both sexes in all study areas, and suggests that a range of other causes of death exist across the three surveillance sites.