Ten Leading Causes of Death in India and in the World

As per World Health Organization, the ten leading causes of death in the world in the year 2011 are given in the following table.  48.2% deaths are happening due to other diseases/causes. Tuberculosis is not now one of the top 10 causes of death in the world, as about one million deaths were there in 2011 due to it.  

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths in Millions	Percentage to Total No. of Deaths
Ischemic Heart Disease	7	11.2
Stroke	6.2	10.6
Lower Respiratory Infection	3.2	6.7
Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease	3.0	5.8
Diarrheal Diseases	1.9	4.7
HIV/AIDs	1.6	3.0
Trachea Bronchus Lung Cancers	1.5	2.7
Diabetes Mellitus	1.4	2.6
Road Injury	1.3	2.2
Prematurity	1.2	1.9

The ten leading causes of death in India in the year 2009 are given in the following table.

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths in Millions
Coronary Heart Disease	1.4169
Diarrheal Diseases	1.2315
Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease	1.1224
Stroke	0.9401
Influenza & Pneumonia	0.7604
Tuberculosis	0.3171
Low Birth Weight	0.2798
Suicide	0.2437
Liver Disease	0.2361
Road Traffic Accidents	0.2235

We may note that heart disease is also top cause of death in India too.  Stroke is number 4 killer where it is second highest killer in the world.  We have Diarrheal Diseases as second highest killer, where it has rank 5 in killing people of the world.  TB is finding sixth highest place, where it is much below the 10^th place in case of world as a whole.  Probably India can also control the Diarrheal Diseases and TB as other countries have done the same.  The other problem of Suicides should be bothered about, as this cause is also quite predominant cause of death here.  Public Health Authorities should take care of liver problem, besides TB and Influenza & Pneumonia in India as these problems are little less significant in other countries of the world.  Also if ANCs coverage improvement and as well better counseling and treatment of needy eligible women may solve the problem of prematurity or low birth weight among new born babies particularly baby girls.  This will not only reduce the IMR, but also help in correcting adverse sex ratio in the country.