Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are now ranked among the 10 leading causes of death around the globe for the first time, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported on Wednesday. Dementia ranks seventh with nearly half a million deaths worldwide, dpa quoted the UN health agency as saying in Geneva, citing 2019 statistics. In Europe and the Americas, it is the third deadliest type of disease. The global leading causes of death last year were heart disease, strokes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), lower respiratory infections and lethal conditions among newborn children. Respiratory cancer, dementia, diarrhoea, diabetes and kidney disease round out the top 10. Like dementia, diabetes was another newcomer on the list. Diabetes deaths have increased 70 per cent within a decade, reaching 1.5 million last year. A WHO spokesperson said that the novel coronavirus disease is on track to rank among the 10 leading causes of death for 2020, as more than 1.5 million fatalities have been linked to the pandemic so far. The global average life expectancy was 73 years in 2019, around six years more than in 2000.
