Sunshine Sentinel

There were 204 deaths with chronic lower respiratory disease listed as the underlying cause reported in Florida during the week ending October 23, a 0.5 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending October 23, there were 4,569 deaths in the state. 19 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 18.9 percent were from cancer and 19.4 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 7.6 percent of deaths were from Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Studies show doctors and medical examiners may underreport Alzheimer's disease and dementia-related conditions as the underlying cause of death on death certificates, according to the National Institute on Aging.

Once infected, older adults with dementia are likely to develop a more severe and dangerous illness. The diseases which make an older adult more vulnerable to COVID-19 are age-associated chronic conditions, according to the Bright Focus Foundation.

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-10-23	Number of Deaths 2021-10-16
Heart disease	870	892
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	863	874
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	477	619
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	410	546
Cerebrovascular diseases	295	294
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	204	203
Diabetes mellitus	118	136
Alzheimer's disease	114	116
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	70	59
Influenza and pneumonia	48	61

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-10-23	Number of Deaths 2021-10-16
Alzheimer disease and dementia	347	356