Heart disease biggest killer in Cyprus, followed by cancer

A total of 6,191 deaths were registered in Cyprus in 2017, a study conducted by the ministry of health about the island’s mortality rate revealed.

As far as the leading causes of death in Cyprus, the majority of people, 32.3 per cent, died of cardiovascular disease, whereas the second most frequent cause of death was cancer with 23 per cent.

Globally it was announced last week that cancer had overtaken heart disease as the leading cause of death in wealthy countries and could become the world’s biggest killer within just a few decades if current trends persist. In high-income countries, cancer now kills twice as many people as heart disease, studies found.

The infant mortality rate was 1.3 deaths per 1,000 live births, the lowest in the EU, where the average infant mortality rate stands at 3.6.

Some 73 per cent of the total number of newborn deaths was due to neonatal conditions, while children between one and 14-years-old mostly died of juvenile cancer (44 per cent) and unintentional injuries (22 per cent).

The study also revealed that young people aged between 15 and 34 have mostly lost their lives in car accidents rather than anything else, as 28 per cent of those deaths were connected to road accidents.

On the other side of the spectrum, people older than 75 mainly died of cardiovascular disease.