WHILE causes of death nationwide have continued to post a decline in 2022, data from the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) showed transportation-related deaths are on the rise.
Transport accidents killed 11,487 Filipinos, a 3.4-percent increase from the 11,114 Filipinos who died from road mishaps in 2021. Vehicular accidents are now the 12th top Filipino killer as of 2022 from 15th overall in 2021.
Based on PSA data, diseases and other causes killed 654,013 Filipinos in 2022, a 25.6-percent contraction compared to the 879,429 who died in 2021.
“[This has] been the problem before the pandemic [but was solved during the pandemic] obviously because of the mobility restrictions. Now, we’re seeing it again,” National Economic and Development Authority (Neda) Undersecretary Rosemarie G. Edillon said on Tuesday.
According to Edillon, this is one of the priorities the government has in its engagement with United Nations agencies, particularly the United Nations Children’s Fund. She said Unicef is “very particular” about road safety, especially near schools.
“Unicef also wants to focus on it because they are particular about having safe roads, particularly for schoolchildren. That is part of that cooperation agreement that we’re having with them,” she said.
Apart from vehicular accidents, deaths caused by exposure to smoke, fire and flames consistent with fires increased 0.5 percent to 389 Filipinos in 2022 from 387 Filipinos in 2021.
Other increases were noted in diseases such as other diseases of the blood and blood–forming organs, and certain disorders involving the immune mechanism which increased 22 percent to 1,031 deaths in 2022.
Meanwhile, the top three causes of death in the country from January to December of 2022 were ischaemic heart diseases, neoplasms and cerebrovascular diseases.
The leading causes of death in the same period in 2021 were ischaemic heart diseases, cerebrovascular diseases and Covid-19 virus.
From January to December of 2022, ischaemic heart diseases were the leading cause of death with 119,966 cases or 18.3 percent of the total deaths in the country.
The data showed neoplasms came in second with 66,606 deaths (10.2 percent share). Cerebrovascular diseases were the third leading cause which accounted for 66,466 recorded cases (10.2-percent share) from January to December 2022.
Deaths due to diabetes mellitus recorded 41,288 cases or a 6.3-percent share, making it the fourth leading cause of death; while deaths due to hypertensive diseases, which ranked fifth, recorded 37,490 cases or a 5.7-percent share.
Registered deaths due to Covid-19 accounted for a total of 17,550 deaths or 2.7 percent of the total registered deaths from January to December 2022. This shows a decline of 84.4 percent from the 112,772 deaths due to Covid-19 that were registered in the same period in 2021.
By classification, Covid-19 with virus identified was the 11th leading cause of death in the country with 12,503 cases or 1.9 percent of the total deaths. It was ranked 3rd in the same period in 2021 with 79,423 deaths or 9 percent of the total deaths.
Meanwhile, registered deaths due to Covid-19 with virus not identified accounted for 5,047 or 0.8 percent of the total deaths, down from 8th in 2021 to 24th as the leading cause of death in the country in 2022.
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