Posted on 04/22/2006 9:38:28 PM PDT by Lunatic Fringe
ATLANTA -- In what appears to be an amazing success for American medicine, preliminary government figures released Wednesday showed that the annual number of deaths in the U.S. dropped by nearly 50,000 in 2004 -- the biggest decline in nearly 70 years.
The 2 percent decrease, reported by the National Center for Health Statistics, came as a shock to many, because the U.S. is aging, growing in population and getting fatter.
In fact, some experts said they suspect the numbers may not hold up when a final report is released later this year.
Nevertheless, center officials said the statistics, based on a review of about 90 percent of death records reported in all 50 states in 2004, were consistent across the country and were deemed solid enough to report.
The center said drops in the death rates for heart disease, cancer and stroke accounted for most of the decline.
''We were surprised by the sharpness of the decrease. It's kind of historical,'' said statistician Arialdi Minino, lead author of the report.
The government also said that U.S. life expectancy has inched up again to 77.9 years, a record high but still behind that of about two dozen other countries.
The preliminary number of U.S. deaths recorded for 2004 was 2,398,343. That represents a decline of 49,945 from the 2,448,288 recorded in 2003.
U.S. deaths ordinarily rise slightly each year. The last decline in annual deaths occurred in 1997, a modest drop of 445 deaths from 1996, Minino said.
The number of deaths has not dropped this steeply since 1938, when there were about 69,000 fewer than in 1937. A drop in 1944 came close -- about 48,000 fewer deaths than the previous year. Health officials could not immediately say why the number of deaths fell so sharply in either of those years.
''These are preliminary data,'' said Paul Terry, an assistant professor of epidemiology at Atlanta's Emory University. ''But if it holds up, it's obviously very good news.''
It's Bush's fault!
You use of German in this circumstance was improper. Indeed "Verstehen" does mean "Understand". However German grammar does not allow the word to stand alone with a question mark. In the present-tense there is no "you" implied. In the formal you would need to write "Verstehen Sie?" Informal, "Verstehst du?". In theory, you could write "Verstanden?" past tense which would be the equivalent of "Understood?".
It doesn't bother me a lot, because the point of language is to communicate. But, if you want to mangle a language and really pi$$ people off, use French. Comprendre?
Thunkst.
Women and children hurt worst.
"American overpopulation driving up commodities prices; rest of world starves"
Probably global warming (Bush's fault).
Quote of the week!
I didn't realize Bill Clinton had that many "friends".
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