Deaths from infant mortality way down since 1970s
09/06/2012 03:15
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, infant mortality has declined from 24.2 per 1,000 live births to only 3.7 today.
Mother holding baby Photo: REUTERS/Erik de Castro
Fatalities from heart and vascular diseases in Israel have dropped by 80 percent
since the middle of the 1970s – because of better surgical treatment and
medications as well as improved lifestyles.
The Central Bureau of
Statistics, in a report on causes of death in 2010 released on Wednesday, said
that cancer was once again the leading cause of death, followed by
cardiovascular diseases. This trend began here in 1999.
In addition,
Israeli mortality rates from cancer, atherosclerosis and stroke were relatively
low compared to the other countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development.
Lung cancer is the most common malignant tumor in men
but at a lower rate compared to men in other OECD countries, while death rates
among Israeli women from breast cancer are higher relative to these
countries.
Mortality from complications of infectious diseases, diabetes
and kidney diseases are much higher in Israel compared to other Western
countries, the report continued.
In 2010, 39,418 people died in Israel;
these constituted 0.5 percent of the population.
Slightly more women
(50.2%) died than men (49.8%). Almost 80% of those who passed away were over the
age of 65 and of those, 64% were over 75 and 34% over 85. Seven percent of those
who died were younger than 45, and 1.6% (or 616) were infants before their first
birthday.
Forty-three percent of Israelis die either of cancer or heart
disease, the report said. Malignant tumors cause almost a quarter of all deaths
here. The second most common cancer to cause death was
colorectal.
Complications of diabetes were the third-biggest killer of
women and the fourth in men.
Arabs are less likely to die of cancer
(20.5% ) than Jews (26.8%).
Accidents, suicide and murder were the third
most common cause of death of men and eighth most common cause in women. But
accidents, suicide and murder were more than twice as often the cause of death
in Arabs than in Jews, followed by complications of diabetes.
Infant
mortality has declined from 24.2 per 1,000 live births to only 3.7 today.