Curated category
Causes of death
- StrokeStroke is the moment the brain runs out of blood. In 2023-15 million people worldwide had one. In 2021, strokes were the third biggest cause of death…
- Myocardial infarctionMyocardial infarction strikes about 15.9 million people worldwide every year, yet the image most people carry of a heart attack is almost entirely wrong.
- Domestic violenceIn 1973, a member of the Parliament of the United Kingdom named Jack Ashley used a phrase in an address that, until then, had meant something entirely…
- Respiratory failureRespiratory failure begins with a quiet arithmetic failure inside the blood. The arterial oxygen, the carbon dioxide, or both can no longer be held at normal…
- SuicideSuicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death, and it is the 10th-leading cause of death worldwide, accounting for about 1.5% of all deaths.
- HIVWithout treatment, the average survival time after infection with HIV runs between 9 and 11 years, depending on the subtype.
- Blunt traumaBlunt trauma is an injury that leaves no visible entry wound, yet it can kill faster than a knife or a bullet. Each year it claims lives on roads, in sports…
- Brain injuryA tamping iron tore through Phineas Gage's frontal lobe in 1848 while he paved a new railroad line, and he survived. He kept his functional abilities, yet…
- Black DeathThe Black Death killed as many as 50 million people, perhaps half of Europe's 14th-century population, between 1346 and 1353.
- HomicideHomicide is an act in which a person causes the death of another person. The word covers far more than the crimes most people picture.