Brazil Gets Top Ranking in Murders, Which Are 5% of All Deaths

Brazil holds the first place in violent deaths in the comparative study carried out among 11 countries by the Brazilian organization Ipea (Institute of Economic and Applied Research). The report was released this Wednesday, November 19, and it concluded that violence was the cause of 4.69% of all deaths occurred in Brazil in the years 2002 and 2003.

This rate is practically twice as much as in all the other countries that were investigated: South Africa, Mexico, Argentina, India, China, Russia, Spain, Germany, Finland and United States.

"When we see the deaths caused by intentional harm, we find out that the rate in Brazil is practically double that of any other country. It's not quite twice as much as South Africa, a country that had apartheid. Violence, according to data from the World Health Organization (WHO) is something that is producing a true destruction of the Brazilian society," noted the Ipea's director at the International Center of Poverty, researcher Milko Maltijascic.

These data deal exclusively with external violence. They don't include, for example, self-inflicted death, i.e. suicide, which in Brazil, according to WHO's data, represents a much lower rate than that of the other countries. The rate also does not include deaths in traffic.

"It is the external violence, in other words, violence of one against the other. The suicide rate is low, in other words, the Brazilian wants to live. He doesn't want in any way to kill himself", explained Maltijascic.

South Africa, a country that got second place in the violence issue, showed in the same period a rate of 2.84% of violent deaths. In developed countries like Finland, Germany and the United States, the violent death rates were  0.34%, 0.07 % and 0.65% respectively.

The study Development and Compared International Experiences revealed also that Brazil presents deaths rates for typical diseases from both developed and poor countries. "Brazil is an interesting case. While it has a health profile of countries in development it also shows several symptoms of developed countries. This way, Brazil has all the challenges to tackle," warned Maltijascic.

The study also pointed out the dramatic situation of countries like South Africa and India that endure very high indexes of AIDS infection.

"In the case of infectious diseases and those caused by parasites, we have South Africa with a rate of 59% and we have India with 20%. One in every three South Africans have AIDS. This certainly reduces the country's hopes for a healthy life. These are data that are putting a brake in the life quality of these countries," observed Maltijascic.