Causes of death Significant increase in infections

More and more people are dying of infectious or parasitic diseases

12/12/2013

As the Federal Statistical Office reports, people are always dying from infectious or parasitic diseases. Compared to 2002, 75 percent more people died of an infection last year. According to the agency, the most common cause of death, however, was cardiovascular disease, which affected 40.2% of all deaths.

Ten percent more deaths from infections
More and more people are dying from infectious or parasitic diseases such as intestinal infection or sepsis. This result was published today by the Federal Statistical Office. Although these accounted for only 2.1 percent (18,353 cases) of the 869,582 deaths (416,423 men and 453,159 women) in 2012, the number increased by ten percent compared to the previous year, compared to 2002 As many as 75 percent more people died from such a disease.

Total 2 percent more deaths than 2011
Overall, the number of deaths rose by 2 percent, according to the Office over the previous year. The most common cause of death in 2012, as in previous years, was cardiovascular disease, such as a heart attack (55 425 cases). A total of 40.2 percent of all deaths were caused by these, which according to the statistics experts, especially the elderly were affected: „92% of those with cardiovascular disease died 65 years and over. A total of 55,425 people died in 2012 from a heart attack that belongs to this disease group. Of these, 55.7% were men and 44.3% were women“, so the current press release.

Second leading cause of death: cancer
The second leading cause of death in 2012 was cancer, which killed more than 25% of all deceased (221,611 people). For the men, the digestive organs as well as the respiratory organs were affected. The women were in total „most often affected by a malignant neoplasm of the digestive system. However, the most common single diagnosis of women with cancer was breast cancer“, according to the report of the Federal Statistical Office.

Proportion of men in suicide significantly higher than women
External, non-natural causes such as injuries or poisoning killed 32,931 people in 2012, accounting for 3.8% of all deaths. Falls were by far the most frequent reason (10 240 cases), followed by „Intentional self-harm (suicide)“ , which was the cause in 30% of all non-natural deaths. A total of 9 890 people took their lives, with the proportion of men according to the Office „74% was almost three times as high as women's 26%.“ (No)