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The share of respiratory infections in deaths caused by communicable diseases rose by 10 per cent to 78 per cent in 2021 from 68 per cent in 2020, the latest data released by National Statistical Office (NSO) last week shows. This means about four out of five deaths due to communicable diseases were caused by the respiratory ailments.
A Business Standard analysis of the communicable disease burden data showed that total deaths due to contagious diseases also rose by 86 per cent to 12,598 from 6,767 in 2019. It doesn't include coronavirus fatalities.
Of the total 12,598 deaths due to contagious diseases in 2021, respiratory infections accounted for 9,872 deaths, with Andhra Pradesh leading the chart, followed by Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.
Although cases due to water borne diseases like typhoid, hepatitis, cholera and diarrhoea have come down between 2019-2022, their case fatality rate (CFR) has risen during this period. The CFR for vector-borne diseases like malaria, dengue, kala-azar and respiratory infections has also gone up.
Case fatality rate is the ratio of people dying from a disease to the number of infections in a given time period.
Meanwhile, the CFR for acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) and Japanese encephalitis dipped in the corresponding period.
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While West Bengal accounts for the most cholera (603) and diarrhoea (1.2 million) cases; Uttar Pradesh accounts for the most typhoid (0.53 million) cases, followed by West bengal.
Punjab accounts for the highest hepatitis cases (20,097).
Diseases for whom mortality case fatality rate (%) has gone up
Diseases for whom case fatality rate (%) has gone down
| - | Top 5 communicable diseases for deaths in 2021 | - |
| Deaths | Share (%) | |
| Respiratory infections | 9872 | 78 |
| Diarrohea | 1375 | 10.9 |
| Hepatitis | 361 | 2.8 |
| Dengue | 346 | 2.7 |
| Typhoid | 229 | 1.8 |
| Total deaths | 12598 | - |
| Year | Total Deaths due to communicable diseases |
| 2019 | 6767 |
| 2020 | 9153 |
| 2021 | 12598 |
| - | Top 5 states with highest respiratory deaths in 2021 |
| Andhra Pradesh | 4494 |
| Uttar Pradesh | 1641 |
| Wwest Bengal | 1342 |
| Haryana | 551 |
| Tamil Nadu | 542 |
Diseases for whom mortality case fatality rate (%) has gone up
| Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| Cholera | 0.29 | 1.5 | 0.72 |
| Diarrhoea | 0.01 | 0.02 | 0.02 |
| Typhoid | 0.01 | 0.01 | 0.02 |
| Hepatitis | 0.35 | 0.4 | 0.41 |
| Malaria | 0.02 | 0.05 | 0.06 |
| Dengue | 0.11 | 0.13 | 0.18 |
| Kala-azar | 0 | 0.31 | 2.19 |
| Respiratory infections | 0.009 | 0.027 | 0.06 |
Diseases for whom case fatality rate (%) has gone down
| - | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 |
| ACUTE ENCEPHALITIS SYNDROME (AES) | 4.73 | 4.57 | 3.47 |
| JAPANESE ECEPHALITIS (JE) | 10.45 | 11.25 | 8.89 |
