The global burden of disease: 2004 update, published by the WHO in 2008 (1), provides estimates of mortality and burden of disease by cause for all regions of the world in 2004. The data in this publication, which were used to generate this figure, indicate that infectious and parasitic diseases were the second leading cause of death in the world in 2004, after cardiovascular diseases. Specifically, approximately 17 million and 9.5 million deaths were a result of cardiovascular diseases and infectious and parasitic diseases, respectively. Among those who died of infectious and parasitic diseases, diarrheal diseases were the leading cause of death, closely followed by HIV/AIDS. *These numbers exclude deaths from liver cancer and cirrhosis resulting from chronic HBV infection.