Global News

Rural-Urban Mortality
The Global Corruption—Health Nexus, Gap Among Children
Worldwide Younger Than 5 years,
Iran

Mayaro Virus Distribution, A

Addressing Unmet Need of
South America FFamily-Planning Services,
ZZambia

Iran’s Rural–Urban
Mortality Gap Among
Children Younger Than
5 Years
Reducing mortality among
children younger than 5 years
(U5M) is a sustainable develop-
ment goal. Mohammadi et al.
used data from the Demographic
and Health Surveys to estimate
the rates and rural–urban ratio in
Iran of U5M in 1990, 2000, 2010,
and 2015. In urban areas, the
U5M rate in 1990 and 2015 was
66 and 13 per 1000 living births,
respectively. In rural areas, U5M
rates in 1990 and in 2015 were
129 and 21 per 1000 living births,
respectively. The rural–urban
ratio of U5M was 1.93 in 1990 and
1.63 in 2015. Although U5M rates
have decreased since 1990 in Iran,
there is still a significant gap in
mortality disproportionately af-
fecting children in rural areas.
Citation. Mohammadi Y, Karami M,
Derakhshanzadeh N. Rural–urban
disparity of under-five mortality rate in
Iran from 1990 to 2015. Iranian J Public
Health. 2020;49(4):744–752.
Prepared by Stephen Lewandowski, Ahlam Abuawad, Omokhoya Abalu, and Luis E Segura, Columbia University, New York,
NY. Correspondence should be sent to the AJPH Global News team at les2196@cumc.columbia.edu.
The Global Corruption–
Health Nexus
Because of a lack of transparency
that conceals bribery and other
law and policy violations, corrup-
tion plays a major role in decreas-
ing perceived satisfaction and
increasing societal damages glob-
ally. To the authors’ knowledge,
this is the first study to evaluate
the empirical association between
corruption and health measures
that uses the cross-sectional
global data of 185 countries from
2005 through 2017. The models
of Achim et al. reveal a positive
association between corruption
and mortality and inverse associa-
tions between corruption and life
expectancy and happiness, with
differences among low- and high-
income countries and across vary-
ing cultures. This study highlights
the necessity of anticorruption
campaigns within the frameworks
of differing economies and cul-
tures of health.
Citation. Achim MV, Văidean VL,
Borlea SN. Corruption and health
outcomes within an economic and
cultural framework. Eur J Health Econ.
2020;21(2):195–207.
Mayaro Virus
Distribution in South
America
Mayaro virus is a relatively rare
mosquito-borne pathogen
endemic to South America whose
symptoms are fever, arthritis, and
rash—similar to other tropical ar-
boviruses. Lorenz et al. applied a
maximum entropy machine-learn-
ing algorithm to map risk areas
for Mayaro virus from 20 years
of case records, biome types,
weather variables, elevation, and
population density. During this
period, infections transitioned
from forests to rural areas as
urbanization increased. The re-
sulting model identifies hot spots
in Brazil’s central Cerrado tropical
savanna region and along the
continent’s northwestern coast.
This work describes the current
distribution of Mayaro virus and
may inform strategies to control
the spread of the disease.
Citation. Lorenz C, Freitas Ribeiro
A, Chiaravalloti-Neto F. Mayaro virus
distribution in South America. Acta
Trop. 2019;198:105093. doi:10.1016/j.
actatropica. 2019.105093.
doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2020.305855
Addressing the Unmet
Need of Family-
Planning Services in
Zambia
Family planning provides several
benefits to women, families,
and society at large, including
reducing unintended pregnan-
cies, planning for the desired
number of children, and spacing
births. Although contraceptive
use has increased significantly
among women aged 15 to 49
years in Zambia, there is still
an unmet need for adequate
family-planning services. Mulenga
et al. identified age, partner’s
education level, contraceptive
side effects, partner’s opposition
to contraceptives, and number
of living children as major factors
that may influence that unmet
need. Future programs and poli-
cies should address these factors
that affect nonutilization to build
more acceptance of family-plan-
ning services and increase the
uptake of contraceptives.
Citation. Mulenga JN, Bwalya BB,
Mulenga MC, Mumba K. Determinants
of unmet need for family planning
among married women in Zambia. J
Public Health Afr. 2020; Epub ahead
of print.

1254 AJPH Global News AJPH September 2020, Vol 110, No. 9