Ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases, and the COVID-19 virus have been identified as the top three causes of death in the Philippines from January to December last year, according to a senior official of the Philippine Statistics Authority.
In a statement, Undersecretary Dennis Mapa, the national statistician and civil registrar general, said in the same period of 2020, the leading causes of death were ischaemic or coronary heart diseases, neoplasms or cancers, and cerebrovascular diseases or strokes.
From January to December of 2021, ischaemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death with 136,575 cases or 17.8 percent of the total deaths in the country.
This indicated an increase of 29.7 percent from the 105,281 deaths or 17.1 percent of the total deaths in the same period of 2020, Mapa said in his statement.
On the other hand, cerebrovascular diseases, came in second with 74,262 deaths (9.7 percent share) from being third in the previous year’s ranking. It showed an increase of 15.3 percent from the 64,381 cases (10.5 percent share) in the same period in 2020.
He added deaths due to COVID-19 virus identified were the third leading cause which accounted for 74,008 deaths (9.7 percent share), rising from rank 14 with 9,316 deaths (1.5 percent share) in the same period of 2020.
According to Mapa, neoplasms, commonly known as “cancer,” ranked as the fourth leading cause of death with 59,503 recorded cases (7.8 percent share) from January to December 2021.
It dropped from being the second leading cause of death with 66,342 deaths (10.8 percent share) from the previous year’s ranking.
Meanwhile, deaths due to diabetes mellitus (48,267 or 6.3 percent share), which ranked fifth in 2021, had an increase of 21.0 percent.
Registered deaths due to COVID-19 accounted for a total of 105,723 deaths or 13.8 percent of the total registered deaths from January to December 2021. By classification, COVID-19 with virus identified and COVID-19 virus not identified were both included in the 10 leading causes of death.
COVID-19 with virus identified was the 3rd leading cause of death in the country with 74,008 cases or 9.7 percent of the total deaths in the same period in 2021.
Meanwhile, registered deaths due to COVID-19 with virus not identified accounted for 31,715 or 4.1 percent of the total deaths from January to December 2021, making it the 8th leading cause of death.
On COVID deaths, three regions have reported over 10,000.
Among the 17 regions, CALABARZON registered the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19 with 21,165 or 20.0 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths from January to December 2021.
The National Capital Region ranked second with 20,924 deaths (19.8 percent), while Central Luzon came in third with 18,828 deaths (17.8 percent).
On the other hand, ARMM reported the least number of registered COVID-19 deaths with only 162 cases.
In Metro Manila, Quezon City reported the highest number of deaths due to COVID-19, with 4,660 deaths or 22.3 percent of the total COVID-19 deaths in the region from January to December 2021.
This was followed by the City of Manila and City of Pasig with 2,976 (14.2 percent) and 2,075 (9.9 percent) COVID-19 deaths, respectively, according to Mapa.
Ischemic heart disease is the term given to heart problems caused by narrowed heart arteries. When arteries are narrowed, less blood and oxygen reaches the heart muscle. This is also called coronary artery disease and coronary heart disease and can ultimately lead to heart attack.
Cerebrovascular disease includes stroke, carotid stenosis, vertebral stenosis and intracranial stenosis, aneurysms, and vascular malformations. Restrictions in blood flow may occur from vessel narrowing (stenosis), clot formation (thrombosis), blockage (embolism) or blood vessel rupture (hemorrhage).
Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is an infectious disease caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Most people infected with the virus will experience mild to moderate respiratory illness and recover without requiring special treatment.
However, some will become seriously ill and require medical attention. Older people and those with underlying medical conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, chronic respiratory disease, or cancer are more likely to develop serious illness. Anyone can get sick with COVID-19 and become seriously ill or die at any age.