COVID-19 is no longer a top cause of death for Americans, dropping from fourth place in 2022 to 10th place last year.
The virus was listed on 49,928 death certificates in 2023 — down from 186,552 in 2022 and a peak of 416,893 in 2021.
Just over 3 million fatalities were reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics last year, with heart disease and cancer once again leading the way. The rate of fatal heart disease increased 0.4% from 2019 to 2023, with 680,909 deaths logged last year.
Dr. David Majure, medical director of the Heart Transplant Service at NewYork-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center, said heart disease needs to be taken more seriously.
“Cardiovascular disease is a slow killer that over time leads to premature death,” Majure told The Post. “Meaningfully impacting the toll of cardiovascular disease requires more than solutions in the clinic or hospital.”
He said the focus should be on improving diets, exercising and preventing diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol.
After heart disease and cancer, the third most common cause of death is “unintentional injuries.” The rate for this collection of preventable deaths spiked 26.3% from 2019 to 2023, fueled by a significant increase in fatal drug overdoses.
The CDC recently reported an estimated 107,543 US drug overdose deaths in 2023 — a slight dip from 2022 but the third consecutive year this number has topped 100,000.
“The US is facing an unprecedented epidemic of opioid use and related deaths,” Dr. Aimee Chiligiris, a clinical psychologist at NewYork-Presbyterian/Columbia University Irving Medical Center, told The Post.
“A current driver of substance-related overdose deaths is fentanyl,” she continued. “Fentanyl has increasingly been laced with substances and places individuals at a much higher risk of lethality.”
Fentanyl, which is up to 50 times more potent than heroin, emerged as a US crisis about a decade ago.
The synthetic opioid is being smuggled across the border by Mexican cartels who produce it from chemicals obtained from China. China recently agreed to enact stricter controls on these chemicals.
Fentanyl has infiltrated just about every aspect of the illicit drug market — it was responsible for an estimated 75,000 US deaths last year.
Meanwhile, stroke has replaced COVID-19 as the fourth leading cause of death, with 162,639 deaths reported. That’s a slight drop from 2022 but an increase from 2020 and 2019.
Also concerning researchers is the rate of deaths from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, which rose 15.3% from 2019 to 2023, owing to excessive drinking during the pandemic.
The 2023 data is preliminary, with final numbers expected later in the year.
