Keystone Today

There were 601 deaths with heart disease listed as the underlying cause reported in Pennsylvania during the week ending October 23, a 4.9 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending October 23, there were 3,000 deaths in the state. 20 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 16.9 percent were from cancer and 31.5 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 7.6 percent of deaths were from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Studies show doctors and medical examiners may underreport Alzheimer's disease and dementia-related conditions as the underlying cause of death on death certificates, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Once infected, older adults with dementia are likely to develop a more severe and dangerous illness. The diseases which make an older adult more vulnerable to COVID-19 are age-associated chronic conditions, according to the Bright Focus Foundation.

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-10-23	Number of Deaths 2021-10-16
Heart disease	601	573
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	506	518
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	494	512
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	451	478
Cerebrovascular diseases	109	127
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	97	133
Alzheimer's disease	81	76
Diabetes mellitus	80	67
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	57	57
Influenza and pneumonia	43	39

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-10-23	Number of Deaths 2021-10-16
Alzheimer disease and dementia	229	222