Pneumonia tops list deadly diseases in Mizoram

Aizaw: Pneumonia was the biggest killer disease in Mizoram last year claiming 143 lives compared to malaria which claimed 119 lives.

According to state health and family welfare records, 491 people in Mizoram fell prey to diseases- 245 due to communicable diseases and 246 due to non-communicable diseases-during the previous year.

Pneumonia topped the communicable diseases list killing 143 people of 4437 people contracting the disease, the source said.

The department also recorded that 68 persons died of accidents, most of them vehicular.

While as many as 21670 people were infected with acute diarrhoea, only 15 of them died. No case of polio was detected, 158 people caught tetanus of which one person died.

Four persons died of typhoid and enteric fever, four people (all women) died of hepatitis B. Among the 159 people infected by hepatitis CDE, three women died.

The department also recorded that 27 persons, including 12 women died of AIDS whereas tuberculosis claimed 11 lives.

Hypertension claimed the lives of 17 persons in 2009 Heart trouble also killed 7 people.

Hypertension-related problems claimed 42 persons, the health officials said.

While 25 people died of diabetes, bronchitis and asthma killed 12 and 15 respectively, the death toll for emphysemas was recorded to be 5.

Cancer, the disease Mizoram has topped the world in, claimed 51 lives during 2009, the health officials added.