Deaths for all age groups (combined) from 1990-1998 in the US:
| Rank | Cause | Fatalities |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heart Disease | 6,557,252 |
| 2 | Malignant Neoplasms | 4,763,868 |
| 3 | Cerebro-vascular | 1,370,924 |
| 4 | Bronchitis Emphysema Asthma | 902,511 |
| 5 | Unintentional Injury and Adverse Effects (i.e. accidents) | 831,814 |
| Motor Vehicle Traffic was #1 subcategory - 380,223 [45.7%] | ||
| Firearm was #12 subcategory - 11,349 [1.4%] | ||
| 6 | Pneumonia & Influenza | 742,355 |
| 7 | Diabetes | 505,676 |
| 8 | Suicide | 277,741 |
| 9 | HIV | 271,877 |
| 10 | Liver Disease | 227,758 |
Source: National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, courtesy of the CDC.
I'm sure it's considered rude to say so, but I'm much more interested in the development of effective prevention and management of cardio-vascular problems & cancers than HIV. In the nine most recent years that data was available, heart disease and "cerebro-vascular" (which I assume means strokes) killed 7.9 million people, and cancer ("Malignant Neoplasms") killed 4.7 million. In the nine years shown, motor vehicle accidents killed more people than HIV/AIDS did.
If you're wondering what got me started, it was this story about Bono and Bill Gates. Sure, they want to help people, but it would seem to make sense to focus on the things that are killing off our own population.
