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Rebecca Voelker

JAMA. 2000;283:1816.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

During a recent scientific group meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, the director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) said rheumatic diseases in developing nations have reached nearly the same proportions as in the industrialized world.

"While the diseases which kill take much of the public attention, musculoskeletal or rheumatic diseases are the major cause of morbidity throughout the world," said Gro Harlem Brundtland, MD, PhD. "These diseases have a substantial influence on health and quality of life, and they inflict an enormous cost on health systems."

Brundtland noted that noncommunicable diseases now cause nearly 40% of deaths in developing nations, where young people are affected more often than in the developed world. A WHO survey in 1989 showed that a wide range of rheumatic conditions, from nonspecific joint aches to rheumatoid arthritis, cause more pain and disability than any other group of conditions in the developed world. Now, Brundtland . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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