Mortality caused by respiratory diseases in the city of S. Paulo (Brazil) was studied. Emphasis is given to the acute respiratory infections and their relative importance as compared to chronic respiratory disease. Mortality data were corrected through research by which additional information was obtained; this correction led to a comparison between the official mortality data and the corrected data. This comparison showed that official statistics, based upon death certificates, did not reflect the magnitude of the problem; that is, acute respiratory infections were overestimated and chronic, underestimated. If the same distortion occurs in other areas of the world, the relative importance of mortality from acute respiratory diseases withing the whole group of respiratory diseases does not have the magnitude stressed by other authors, especially in a study where data from 88 countries were analysed.
Respiratory tract diseases; Mortality