Big data, at global level, wowsers!

 If you ever wanted to be wowed by beautifully displayed health data. Here it is: 

https://www.who.int/data/gho 

Pixabay Image. Free for commercial use. No attribution required

 

About the global health observatory: 

"The GHO data repository is WHO's gateway to health-related statistics for its 194 Member States. It provides access to over 1000 indicators on priority health topics including mortality and burden of diseases, the Millennium Development Goals (child nutrition, child health, maternal and reproductive health, immunization, HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected diseases, water and sanitation), non communicable diseases and risk factors, epidemic-prone diseases, health systems, environmental health, violence and injuries, equity among others". Accessible at: https://www.who.int/data/gho/info/about-the-observatory

Is data everything?

Dr. William Farr and his support of for the theory of "Miasma" had thoroughly examined data to back their hypothesis. UCLA's Epi page has details https://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/snow/farrgraph.html 

Pixabay image. Free for commercial use . No attribution required

Dr. William Farr, wasn't a lonely crusader who could be easily dismissed as sometimes is the case with public health researchers; he was the assistant commissioner for the 1851 census and a career employee of the government's General Register Office. And he had the data to support his idea. Still, it wasn't quite what caused cholera as we all know now. Of course this was before the germ theory or the epidemiological triad was put into practice; and before confounding identified as a variable lurking to cause spurious associations.

Aren't we glad that scientific methods have come such a long way (molecular bio-surveillance and all),  but this makes me quite sure that some axioms will always hold true.

 Data without context is nothing!