The 10 Most Vulnerable Diseases To Affect The Americans In 2020
Nikki Attkisson | Last Updated : December 23, 2021The year 2020 has seen a lot of chaos and calamity throughout the world irrespective of caste, creed, or nationality. The emergence of the unknown virus seemed to have turned everything upside down. Covid has claimed many lives, and the Americans are anticipating something similar this time, too, with the evolution of the new strain. But again, looking carefully, we should be able to enlist a few more reasons that the US should be concerned about.
The 10 Most Vulnerable Diseases To Affect The Americans In 2020
CDC data suggests that of the 10 most vulnerable diseases that the Americans had to face, 6 have shown an increase and only 2 have shown a decline. The rest remained the same when compared to last year’s data. Around 74% of the People living in the US will be affected in the year 2020 due to these diseases, including Covid.
Ranking first in position is death due to cardiovascular diseases. It has recorded a total of 696,962 deaths at a rate of 168.2 per 100,000 populations. A nearly 6% increase has been recorded by the topmost killer of Americans in the year 2000. The US has seen an increase of 37,921 more deaths since 2019, which is 21% of the deaths.
Cancer is the second most deadly disease that affects Americans accounting for 18% of the total deaths. The number of deaths recorded was 602,350 in 2020. The death rate was 144.1 % per 100,000 population which decreased from 146.2 per 100,000 since 2019 although the number of deaths increased by 2,749.
Covid comes third in the position that has caused the deaths of 350,831 at a rate of 85 per 100,000 populations. About 10% of the deaths are due to Covid. And the Black-white disparity has caused a huge surge in the number of cases amongst the Blacks.
Deaths due to accidents and unintentional injuries like drug overdose, car accidents, and falls accounted for 5.9%. The occurrences have increased by 27,915 since 2019, causing an increase of 16%. The number of deaths recorded was 200,955, with a death rate of 57.6 per 100,000 people. It had been the third cause earlier, but after the surge in death cases of more than 150,000, due to Covid, it came down in the list.
Cerebrovascular diseases come next in rank. The total number of deaths recorded was 160,264. It accounted for 4.7% of the total number of deaths and has increased by 10,259 deaths since 2019. The death rate was seen as 38.8 % per 100,000 populations.
Chronic lower respiratory diseases, which include chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases (COPD), asthma, chronic bronchitis, and emphysema, accounted for 152,657 deaths at the rate of 36.4 per 100,000 populations. The death rate has shown a decrease by 3% as 4,322 fewer deaths had been recorded in the year 2019 due to such diseases. A 5.5 % was recorded in the year 2019, which showed a decline to 4.5% in 2020.
Alzheimer’s disease and associated ones have long been accounted as one of the major causes of death in the US. Around 4% of total deaths in 2020, which represents a more than 10 % surge in the number of death cases, has been caused due to an increase in the numbers by 12,743. Approximately 134,242 deaths have been reported in 220, which have been recorded at the rate of 32.4 per 100,000 populations. According to CDC, nearly 14 million US people will suffer from Alzheimer’s or related disorders in 2060.
Deaths due to diabetes recorded a 3% of total deaths in 2020, which showed an increase of 16.6 % since 2019 with 14,541 deaths. It accounted for 102,188 deaths in 2020 at the rate of 24.8 per 100,000 per population.
Influenza and pneumonia accounted for 53,544 deaths, and they are supposed to be the ninth biggest killers in the US in 2020. 3,761 more deaths have been recorded since 2019 but still, stand in the same position. Lastly, we have kidney ailments that have recorded a number of 52,547 deaths at the rate of 12.7 per 100,000 populations. Since 2019, the number of cases has increased by 982, accounting for an increase of 1.6% in 2020.
With over 15 years as a practicing journalist, Nikki Attkisson found herself at Powdersville Post now after working at several other publications. She is an award-winning journalist with an entrepreneurial spirit and worked as a journalist covering technology, innovation, environmental issues, politics, health etc. Nikki Attkisson has also worked on product development, content strategy, and editorial management for numerous media companies. She began her career at local news stations and worked as a reporter in national newspapers.