Source: Nairobi Star
Ibrahim Oruko
12 September 2011
Malaria tops the list of ten diseases that were the leading causes of deaths in Kenya in 2010, a government report shows.
A total of 30,475 malaria-related deaths were reported across the country which accounted for 16.8 percent of all deaths in 2010. This was followed by pneumonia, AIDS, and TB which represented 12, 7.4, and 6.5 per cent, of all deaths registered, respectively.
The Annual Civil Registration Statistics Report shows other diseases in the top ten causes of deaths are cancer, sudden death, anaemia, heart disease, road traffic accident and meningitis. The report is published by the Ministry of Immigration and Registration of Persons. In comparison to 2009, cancer overtook TB to be the fourth leading cause of deaths in 2010, while heart disease moved from tenth in 2009 to eighth leading cause in 2010.
Road accidents, which were not in the top ten in 2009, became the ninth leading cause of death in 2010 with 4396 cases that accounted for 2.4 per cent of total deaths. “This shows cases of cancer, heart disease and road traffic deaths are rising,” the report states. Even among infants, malaria remains the common cause of deaths, followed by pneumonia, while sudden deaths are rated as the least cause of mortality deaths. Unlike infants, AIDS was the main cause of deaths for those in the 25-45 years age group, followed by malaria and TB.
Among the old age, the report reveals malaria retains the position as the main cause of deaths followed by pneumonia and sudden deaths. In Nairobi and Central Kenya, the leading cause of deaths in 2010 was pneumonia, where 2577 and 4977 cases were reported, respectively.In all other regions, except north eastern, malaria was the leading cause of death. Incidentally, it was only in NEP that no single AIDS-related death was reported in the year. In NEP, sudden death was the leading cause of deaths. “This is because most of the deaths were reported from home and therefore the causes were not professionally diagnosed,” states the report.
According to the report, maternal deaths are highest in age group 25-34 in almost all regions except Nairobi and coast. This is because most births occur in this age group. At 126, Nyanza recorded the highest number of maternal deaths in 2010. It also had the highest proportion of maternal deaths in all regions.
This was followed by eastern region at 105 and then north rift with 94 registered maternal deaths. Nairobi had the lowest proportion of maternal deaths to total deaths and this is attributed to access to better health care. And while NEP with 13, recorded the lowest maternal deaths, was, however attributed to low reporting of vital events in the region.
