ABSTRACT
Background: Reliable mortality data are a prerequisite for planning health interventions; yet such data are often not available in developing countries; particularly in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Demographic surveillance systems (DSS) implementing the verbal autopsy (VA) method are the only possibility to observe cause-specific mortality of a population on a longitudinal basis in many countries. Methods: This paper reports all-cause and cause-specific mortality rates in children under the age of five years from 1999 until 2003 in a malaria holoendemic area of north-western Burkina Faso. The DSS of the Nouna Health Research Centre; which VA data were analysed; covers a rural population of about 30;000 (41 villages) and an urban population of about 25;000 (Nouna town). Results: A total of 1.544 deaths were analysed (...)