For
the first time in almost half a century, homicide has fallen off the
list of the nation’s top 15 causes of death, bumped by a lung illness
that often develops in elderly people who have choked on their food. The
2010 list, released by the government this week, shows that murders are
down, and deaths from certain diseases are on the rise as the
population ages. Homicide was overtaken at No. 15 by pneumonitis, seen
mainly in people 75 and older. It happens when food or vomit goes down
the windpipe and causes deadly damage to the lungs. This is the first
time since 1965 that homicide failed to make the list, according to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Other findings:
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The infant mortality rate dropped to an all-time low of 6.14 deaths per 1,000 births in 2010. It was 6.39 the year before.
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U.S. life expectancy for a child born in 2010 was about 78
years and 8 months, up about a little more than one month from life
expectancy for 2009.
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Heart disease and cancer remain the top killers, accounting for
nearly half the nation’s more than 2.4 million deaths in 2010. But the
death rates from them continued to decline.
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Death rates for five other leading causes of death also dropped
in 2010, including stroke, chronic lower respiratory diseases,
accidents, flu/pneumonia and blood infections.
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But death rates increased for Alzheimer’s disease, the nation’s
sixth-leading killer, kidney disease (No. 8), chronic liver disease and
cirrhosis (No. 12), Parkinson’s disease (No. 14) and pneumonitis.
