Health experts have pronounced diabetes as one of the deadliest diseases. Diabetes which killed an increasing number of New York City residents last year for the first time ranked among the five leading causes of death, according to statistics released by the health department yesterday.
In 2003, diabetes was identified as the fourth-leading cause with 1,891 deaths, an 11 per cent increase from the previous year, when the disease was ranked sixth, the data suggest. Of those deaths, 1,024 were women and 867 were men.
Health officials attributed the increase to rising levels of obesity among the people of New York, and also to a higher risk of the disease in a population that is living longer. Diabetes was the third-leading cause of death among those between 55 and 74.
The data reveals heart disease still remains the leading killer, causing 23,875 deaths last year. Cancer was second with 13,826 deaths and influenza and pneumonia was third with 2,692 deaths.
Alzheimer's disease was identified for the first time as a leading cause of death in people over age 75. However, teen pregnancies are down except in the Bronx, where the rate is 127 per 1,000.
HIV and AIDS-related deaths slipped two places to seventh last year, accounting for 1,656 deaths, compared with 1,713 the year before.
The study, however, suggested that New York overall remained a healthy and safe place to live. The total number of deaths dipped once again this year to a historic low of 59,213 deaths, compared with 59,651 in 2002.
