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Anthony L. Suchman, MD
Highland Hospital Rochester, NY

JAMA. 1996;275(18):1400.

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

To the Editor.

—While reading the thoughtful analysis of trends in infectious diseases mortality by Dr Pinner and colleagues,¹ I was troubled that something is missing in the way we look at mortality data. Fewer cardiovascular deaths, for example, mean that more people will live long enough to develop malignancies or Alzheimer disease. Pneumonia can be the precipitating event in a "good death" for a nonagenarian. I would urge authors and editors to provide readers with a little more context for mortality statistics, using years of potential life lost or other similar tools. We need to be open to the possibility that a rising death rate for some diseases could actually be a good sign. . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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