Female mortality in reproductive ages in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

An audit of all cases of female mortality in the reproductive age groups has been performed in Dar es Salaam during 1991-93. Multiple sources of information was used to collect information on deaths. None of the sources of information on death was alone adequate. 73% of the interviews was done at home. The mother or another close relative was interviewed in more than 70% of the cases. A total of 645 deaths were identified and 18% of these were related to pregnancy. Fever, shortness of breath and weight loss were the most common symptoms before death followed by pallor and vomiting. Almost 90% visited a health facility before death. AIDS (27%), tuberculosis (13%) and malaria (12%) were the most common causes of death. Diagnosis could not be made from audit data in 22 cases, and the relatives attributed 7.6% of all deaths to witchcraft or just God's will. AIDS and related diseases are now a major cause of death in the female reproductive age group. There is need to identify preventive measures of this disease as well as prevention of malaria and tuberculosis.