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Migrants historically and currently form an integral part of South Africa. Their importance and contribution to the country’s economy and development are undeniable. Yet, life for African migrants in South Africa is becoming increasingly difficult. An analysis of migrants mortality until now has not been conducted. The purpose of this paper is to compare the trends of the cause of death among South African Citizens (RSA) and African migrants from countries that form part of the South African Development Community (SADC), that make up nearly 70% of the migrants in the country.

Using Stats SA data of all registered deaths in South Africa (2002-2015), this paper compares all causes of death (COD) between RSA and SADC migrants. This paper studies the patterns in COD among these population groups for the years 2002 to 2015 in deaths due to infectious diseases and unnatural causes. Logistic regression was used to quantify the odds of dying due to infectious disease and unnatural causes for each population group. This paper included a calculation of the odds of dying due to assault, as a sub-group within unnatural deaths.

A total of 7,611,129 deaths were recorded for the local South African population and 88,114 for SADC migrants for the period under study (2002–2015). The burden of mortality for both infectious diseases and unnatural causes was higher for SADC migrants as compared to RSA. SADC migrants were 1.22 times more likely to die from infectious diseases than RSA (P < 0.001, 95% confidence interval (CI) (1.12, 1.23). Similarly, SADC migrants were 2.7 times more likely to die from unnatural causes than South Africans (P < 0.001, 95% CI (2.17, 2.23). The odds of dying from assault was the same as that of unnatural causes. Also, it was found that women were more likely to die from infectious diseases (OR = 1.11, P < 0.001, 95% CI (1.11, 1.11) compared to men, regardless of nationality.

The bias resulting from migrants who return home to die due to illness, described in the literature as the salmon bias, is present in this paper. This paper, therefore, concludes death due to infectious diseases could be higher among migrants.

The heightened mortality among SADC migrants can be related to the impact of social determinants of health such as living and working conditions and barriers to access to health care. Moreover, the higher probability of death due to unnatural causes such as assaults constitute a proxy to estimate the impact of xenophobic violence observed in the country over the past decade. Policy interventions should focus on migrant health-care systems. Also, programmes to mitigate and curb xenophobic sentiments should be carried out to address the growing disparity of preventable unnatural causes of death.

This study offers the first quantification of mortality due to infectious diseases and unnatural causes among RSA and SADC migrants.

This study aims to examine sociodemographic characteristics, levels and patterns of mortality experiences amongst Indian prisoners over the past two decades (1998–2018).

This study used prison statistics in India to analyze occupancy rate, percentage distribution, annual/decadal change, male–to–female ratios, prison mortality rate and causes of natural/unnatural deaths.

During 1998–2018, prisons in India grew by 18% and prisoners by 69%, leading to overcrowded jails. Males outnumbered female prisoners. Seventy percent of prisoners had an educational attainment level lower than 10th grade. In 2018, over 14 per 1,000 prisoners suffered from a mental illness and 384 per 100,000 died. Unnatural deaths accounted for 8%–11% of all prisoner deaths; 84% were by suicide. Illness accounted for 95% of all natural deaths in 2018; one–quarter was due to heart diseases.

The study did not establish an association between sociodemographic characteristics with mental illness and mortality due to the non-availability of data.

The pattern of a deteriorating living environment, rise in mental illnesses and mortality among Indian prisoners calls for immediate action from the authorities to protect them. Almost all unnatural deaths were by suicide (mostly by hanging). This detailed study would help authorities to take corrective measures for prisoner safety and well-being. There is also a need to develop a scientific database for this population.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine morbidity and mortality experiences of the prisoner population using national statistics.

This study aims to analyze the pattern of deaths in detention in Northern Tunisia as well as the causes of death.

The authors conducted a cross-sectional retrospective study including all the casualties of death in detention examined in the legal medicine Department in the main teaching hospital from 2005 to 2019. The department covers 10 out of the 11 governorates of Northern Tunisia and 13 prisons.

Of a total of 197 casualties, only 2 were females. The mean age was 45.39 ± 14.43 years. A known medical history was reported in 63.5%, mainly cardiovascular disease, mental health disorders and diabetes. Half of the deaths occurred at the hospital. A total of 53 victims spent less than one year in custody before their death. Most deaths occurred due to disease-related causes (78.7%; n = 155); among these, 69 victims died from cardiovascular disease. Suicide accounted for 3.6% of the casualties and homicides for four cases.

Several missing data regarding the details of the detention circumstances as well as the absence in some cases of the toxicological and histopathology analysis results, which could bias the study findings.

Death in detention in Northern Tunisia involved mainly males between their 30s and their 50s who died mainly from cardiovascular or pulmonary disease. These results underscore the importance of empowering the penitentiary health system.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of largest studies with regard to the number of decedents and the number of prisons from the Arab countries allowing to draw a pattern of casualties of death in prison.

Abstract Steps have been taken towards improving the support given by the mental health workforce to those with personality disorder. But there is more to be done. This article argues that personality disorder is a significant public health challenge and not simply an issue for mental health and criminal justice services.

This article summarises different approaches to defining what constitutes a drug‐related death (DRDs) and how they can be classified. DRDs usually fall into two broad categories: (a) those directly attributable to the consumption of drugs (both illegal and licit) eg. overdose and poisoning, and (b) indirect ‐ those which occur as a consequence of having a drug habit that exposes individuals to the risk of dying in some other way, eg. blood‐borne infections, accidents. Most attention is currently given to direct or ‘acute’ DRDs rather than the long‐term consequences of drug abuse. Problems associated with accurately deriving DRD statistics are outlined. Despite their limitations, such information is essential for identifying issues related to drug use and measuring progress against targets set for reducing DRDs.

Austrian insights on the limits of central planning, the pervasiveness of knowledge problems, and the importance of the entrepreneur in coordinating social change have yielded substantive contributions to the literature on how individuals and communities respond to both natural and unnatural, or manmade, disasters. Austrian economists have examined the political economy of natural disasters, disaster relief and recovery efforts, the economic effects of extended wars, post-conflict societal reconstitution, and the effectiveness of humanitarian aid. This literature advances two main findings: (1) that centralized governments are likely to be ineffective at providing the goods and services that are necessary for community recovery and (2) that decentralized efforts are better suited to address the needs of society, to discover the best course of action for producing and distributing these goods and services, and to adapt to changing needs, circumstances, and technology. This paper examines the Austrian theories utilized to examine disasters, provides a summary of the recent research on both natural and unnatural disasters, and proposes areas for future research.

The chapter tries to understand how nuclear tests and the radiation fallouts in their aftermath can lead to cancer. It seeks to explore how our diseased ecological systems have resulted in silencing the birdsong and the spreading of cancer in the Anthropocene with reference to Terry Tempest Williams' (An environmentalist and Utah naturalist) two memoirs – “‘Refuge: An Unnatural History of Family and Place” and “When Women Were Birds: Fifty-Four Variations on Voice.” It would also try to factor in connections between climate change, pandemics like the COVID-19, and the onslaught of other terminal illnesses like cancer, all a result of mankind's anthropocentric hubris and domination of nature.

Mine would be a qualitative approach wherein I will refer to the original two texts mentioned for primary material and other sources for secondary references and analyze them from an ecofeminist perspective.

We need to establish the health of the Environment through reduced usage of nuclear weapons and by developing a language and an environmental praxis that doesn't separate the subject and the object and only then we can usher in biological egalitarianism, and restore the song of the whistling thrush again. We also need to revere our Mother Earth and see to it that she maintains her ecological balance through homeostasis.