Public Health in the US

Number of deaths for leading causes of death as of 2005

- Heart disease: 652,091
- Cancer: 559,312
- Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 130,933
- Accidents (unintentional injuries): 117,809
- Diabetes: 75,119
- Alzheimer's disease: 71,599
- Influenza/Pneumonia: 63,001
- Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome, and nephrosis: 43,901
- Septicemia: 34,136

Diabetes:

New US diabetes rate up 90 percent in past decade

- Newly diagnosed cases of diabetes rose to 9.1 per 1,000 people annually between 2005 to 2007, up from 4.8 per 1,000 from 1995 to 1997, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.

- The American Diabetes Association said 23.6 million U.S. children and adults which is about 8 percent of the US population.

New estimates show diabetes affects 24 million

- The estimates, based on 2007 data, also show that 57 million people have pre-diabetes, a condition that puts people at increased risk for diabetes. And up to 25 percent of people with diabetes do not know they have it, the CDC said, down from 30 percent two years ago.

- Almost 25 percent of the population 60 years and older had diabetes in 2007, the CDC found.

- The highest rates are among Native Americans and Alaska Natives, with 16.5 percent affected.

- Close to 12 percent of blacks and 10 percent of Hispanics have diabetes, but just 7.5 percent of Asian Americans and 6.6 percent of whites.


Cancer:

Tobacco caused 2.4 million U.S. cancers - report

- Tobacco use caused 2.4 million cases of cancer in the United States from 1999 to 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

- Tobacco use kills 438,000 people prematurely every year, including 38,000 people who breathe only secondhand smoke, the CDC said.

- Smoking accounts for $167 billion annually in health care expenditures and productivity losses

Obesity:

More Americans obese, government finds

- The percentage of U.S. adults who are obese grew by nearly 2 percent between 2005 and 2007, from just under 24 percent to 25.6 percent, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

- Southerners are the heaviest Americans, on average, with 27 percent obese. Just over 25 percent of adults in the Midwest, 23 percent in the Northeast, and 22 percent in the West were obese.

- CDC reported that the childhood obesity epidemic had leveled off after surging for about 20 years, with 16 percent of young people obese.


Coronary heart disease:

Survey shows heart disease worse in poor states

- Nationally, 4 percent nationally said they had experienced a heart attack.

- The lowest rate of heart attacks was in the U.S. Virgin Islands, a territory in the Caribbean, where just 2.1 percent of people said they had ever had a heart attack. The worst was West Virginia, where 6.1 percent had.

- The report found men were much more likely to have heart disease than women -- 8.2 percent versus 5 percent. American Indians and Alaska Natives had the highest heart disease prevalence at 11.2 percent.

- Coronary heart disease is projected to cost an estimated $151.6 billion in direct and indirect costs in 2007," the CDC said

U.S. stroke, heart disease death rates down sharply

- Figures for 2006 show that all forms of cardiovascular disease accounted for 34 percent of deaths in the United States -- a total of about 829,000 people, according to the report.