Most studies on female mortality in the developing world deal either with the mortality of women aged 15-49 years or maternal mortality. Although estimating maternal mortality and understanding its determinants are important epidemiological endeavors, the picture thus obtained is incomplete as it fails to describe the overall burden of deaths among women in a community.

Malawi is a southeastern Africa country with a population of about 12 million, according to the country’s 1998 Population and Housing Census (1). Like many other developing countries, communicable diseases such as malaria, tuberculosis and other respiratory infections, as well as under-nutrition and diarrhea are major causes of morbidity and mortality. Many of these public health challenges have been compounded by the HIV and AIDS epidemic. Malawi’s first AIDS case was reported in 1985 and by 2003, adult HIV sero-prevalence was estimated at 14% (2). Gregson et al have estimated that in the countries heavily affected by HIV/AIDS, up to 75% of adult mortality could be related to HIV after 25 years of the epidemic (3).

Mortality trends have potential to highlight whether public health programs aimed to reduce deaths in a community are having the desired impact. This article aims to describe the mortality rate trends among Malawian women aged 15-49 years between 1979 and 2004.