TB biggest cause of natural deaths in Nelson Mandela Bay
01 Feb 2016 | Admin Author
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Tuberculosis was the leading underlying natural cause of death in Nelson Mandela Bay in 2012, according to figures released on Thursday by Statistics South Africa.
The figures show that TB was the underlying cause of the death of 699 people or 11.1% of the 6 294 deaths recorded in 2012.
TB was also the leading underlying cause of natural death in Buffalo City as well as all six district municipalities in the Eastern Cape in 2012.
Stats SA lists the second underlying natural cause of death as diabetes mellitus (410 or 6.5%), followed by cerebrovascular diseases (371 or 5.9%) and hypertensive diseases (360 or 5.7%).
The statistics show that 578 people or 9.2% of total deaths recorded in 2012 died from non-natural causes, while 339 (5.4%) of deaths were due to HIV.
The highest number of deaths attributed to HIV was 877 or 6.2% of the total of 14 171 deaths in OR Tambo.
Of the 6 543 people who died of non-natural causes in 2012, 654 or 10% resulted from traffic accidents; 15.3% as a result of an assault and the same number as a result of an “event of undetermined intent”.
Other external causes of accidental injury accounted for 3 730 or 57% of all deaths in this category.
The number of deaths from non-natural causes in the Eastern Cape in 2012 was the third highest in the country after Gauteng (10 072) and KwaZulu-Natal (9 441).
