[imagesource:here]

Sometimes it’s hard to remember a time when there was anything other than COVID-19 to worry about healthwise.

We apologise after every cough and sneeze because the people around us might suspect we’re spreading the virus.

I’ve been both the apologiser and the person who whips around to death stare whoever let out more air than they should be during these trying times.

But there are still myriad other diseases and conditions that claim the lives of many.

In a report published by Statistics South Africa on Tuesday (June 15), we can see the top 10 leading causes of mortality in South Africa from the period 1997 to 2018.

The report, based on all death notification forms maintained by the Department of Home Affairs, does not include deaths due to COVID-19 as these will be published after the 2020 processing cycle, reports BusinessTech.

So, the top 10 leading underlying natural causes of death for the reporting period (1997 to 2018) were:

• Tuberculosis;
• Diabetes mellitus;
• Cerebrovascular diseases;
• Other forms of heart disease;
• Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease;
• Hypertensive diseases;
• Influenza and pneumonia;
• Ischaemic heart diseases;
• Chronic lower respiratory diseases;
• Malignant neoplasms of digestive organs.

These top 10 underlying natural causes of death represent just 44% of all deaths in the country.

Some deaths are also due to non-natural causes, which are mostly:

• Accidental injury (68,3%)
• Assault (14%)
• Transport accidents (11,4%)

Overall, KwaZulu-Natal (13,5%) and Cape Town (13%) had the highest proportion of deaths due to non-natural causes.

There has been a slight increase in recent years in the proportion of deaths due to non-natural causes. However, the number of deaths due to natural causes was still higher than the number of deaths due to non-natural causes, StatsSA said.

The only good news (sort of) is that mortality levels had been declining in the country since the HIV peak in 2006-2007.

Understandably, older groups suffer the most:

The 65-69 age group had the highest proportion of deaths in 2018 at 8,4%, followed closely by the 60-64 age group at 8,3%.

We can expect the next reporting period to look far worse, with all the stats for COVID-19 included, though.

Do your best to stay safe and healthy, folks.

[source:businesstech]