Deaths from Covid and cancer fall in Malaga, while suicides and accidents rise

Malaga province is finally bucking a high mortality trend after three consecutive years of record deaths as a result of Covid-19 health related complications.

In the first half of this year, some 7,009 deaths were recorded in the province, 331 fewer than in the same period in 2022, according to latest data from Spain's INE national institute of statistics.

The 4.5% decrease is due to a lower mortality rate recorded as a result of natural causes; specifically the drop in deaths linked to coronavirus and moderate decreases in circulatory and oncological diseases. Meanwhile, non-natural causes of death doubled, according to the figures, where suicides have alarmingly quadrupled.

In the first six months of 2022, coronavirus was still highly lethal and the most frequent cause of death, causing 561. During the same period this year, it was not even in the top ten deadliest diseases: 120 coronavirus-related deaths were reported, a 61% decrease.

The same trend has been registered across the country, and even sharper, with a 6% drop in mortality in the first half of the year where coronavirus deaths fell by 82%. The figures showed that the diseases that caused the most deaths in the first half of this year were related to the heart and circulatory system, with 2,005 deaths - a 9% drop compared with the same period in 2022.

There was also a decrease in deaths caused by most lethal diseases, including a 25% drop in acute myocardial infarction (with 226 deaths); 17% in stroke and other cerebrovascular diseases (431 deaths), 12% in «other heart diseases« (ranging from pericarditis, myocarditis and endocarditis to valve disorders, with 398 deaths) and 29% in arteriosclerosis (45 deaths). These decreases follow striking increases in 2022, giving rise to theories that blamed Covid-19 vaccines for health complications.

An increase in cancer-related deaths also slowed in the first half of this year. It is the second most frequent cause of death in Malaga province, with 1,754 deaths recorded between January and June. This is a 4% decrease compared to the record figure reached in the first half of 2022. The most lethal types of tumours are bronchial, tracheal or lung cancer (with 368 deaths, down 12.8%), colon cancer (184, up 9.5%), breast cancer (124, up 12.7%), pancreatic cancer (103, down 15%), prostate cancer (86, up 3.6%) and liver cancer (86, up 16%). Although they are not among the leading cancers in terms of number of deaths, the increase in mortality from stomach cancer (38%) and skin cancer (60%) is striking, the figures show.

The biggest increase among the causes of death was in respiratory diseases, according to the data, with a 25% rise, bringing the number of deaths in the first half of 2023 to 731. The INE pointed out the pandemic «produced a change in the pattern of causes of death with respect to previous years» - as Covid-19 cases soared, other respiratory diseases decreased.

Examples of this higher incidence of respiratory diseases not linked to Covid-19 are the 32 deaths from influenza (compared to only seven in the first half of 2022), the 125 from pneumonia (up 25%) or the 293 (up 39%) from «other diseases» of this group.

Diseases linked to age-related brain degeneration such as dementia increased by almost 15% to 330, overtaking Alzheimer's, which decreased by 9% to 259 deaths. Another disorder related in many cases to ageing, diabetes, increased its mortality rate by 7% to 161 cases. Birth-related mortality was zero for mothers and halved for infants (with seven deaths recorded due to conditions originating during the perinatal period).

While mortality from natural causes slowed in Malaga after three years of rising, the data pointed to a worrying increase in suicides, fatal accidents, homicides and other non-natural deaths. These types of deaths are now among the top ten groups of causes after more than doubling compared to the first half of 2022 (from 102 to 223 cases).

In the first half of the year, 69 people died by suicide in Malaga province, four times more than the same period in 2022. In the first half of the year, deaths caused by accidental falls also increased by 131% to 67, while homicides quadrupled from two to eight.

Road traffic accidents also increased by 27%, with 19 fatalities, according to the figures.

Six people lost their lives in fires, while no such deaths were recorded in the same period last year.