1. Heart disease
Heart disease has remained the leading cause of death In India for more than two decades, fuelled by unhealthy diets leading to high blood pressure and the buildup of blood fats (plaque) inside the walls of the arteries, inactivity, obesity, and smoking.
2. Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, including pulmonary hypertension, occupational lung disease, and interstitial lung disease, cause irreversible damage to the airways and other lung structures to lower breathing capacity. Lung diseases are not curable but can be managed using treatments that dilate significant air passages and improve shortness of breath. Smoking, air pollution, occupational chemicals, dust, and frequent lower respiratory infections aggravate lung conditions.
3. Diarrhoea
Diarrhoeal diseases are among the biggest causes of under-5 deaths, killing between 800,000 and one million children, hospitalizing 900,000, and causing 327,000 visits to clinics each year. Adding the Rotavirus vaccine to India’s universal vaccination program in 2016 to protect children against the leading cause of severe diarrhea in young children helped lower numbers rapidly.
4. Stroke
Stroke ranked as the sixth most significant cause of death in 2005 and rose to become India's fourth-biggest killer. The risk factors for stroke, also known as cerebrovascular disease, are the same as heart disease. Still, the disability caused by a brain attack is often higher as it may cause partial or complete paralysis.
5. Lower respiratory infections
With improved diagnosis and infection management, lower respiratory diseases such as pneumonia, lung abscess, and acute bronchitis have slipped one position down to become the fifth-biggest cause of death. It’s among the most common infection in older adults and people with lowered immunity from other diseases, such as seasonal influenza. Symptoms include shortness of breath, weakness, fever, coughing, and fatigue that persist for more than a week must be investigated.
6. Tuberculosis
India accounts for 2.8 million of the 10.4 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases globally, according to the World Health Organization’s Global TB Report 2016. India’s national program provides free medicines and treatment to all. Still, many patients do not complete the entire course of therapy, which must be taken for six to eight months for uncomplicated disease. This leads to drug-resistant infection, which takes longer to treat using more toxic and expensive medicines.
7. Neonatal preterm birth
With 80.8% of India’s 226 lakh annual births taking place in hospitals, health centers, and clinics, deaths from premature birth-related complications such as low birth weight had dropped since 2005 when it was the fourth cause of death.
8. Self-harm
Ranked the 10th cause of death in 2005, self-harm or suicide is India’s eighth biggest killer. Data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) has recorded a corresponding increase of 17.3%, 1,33,623 in 2015, up from 1,13,914 in 2005, in suicides over the past two decades.
9. Road injuries
Death from traffic accidents rose three points over two decades. Road accidents rose by 3.1% in one year, from 4,50,898 in 2014 to 4,64,674 in 2015 – with deaths going up by 5.1%, from 1,41,526 to 1,48,707 during the same period, shows NCRB data. States that showed the sharpest increase were Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, and Chhattisgarh.
10. Other neonatal conditions
Breastfeeding, vaccination against common infection, and neonatal care are helping more babies thrive and survive neonatal conditions such as septicemia, birth asphyxia, and birth trauma.
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