Health Statistics

For the first time in modern history, the rate of infections in the global tuberculosis epidemic has leveled off and may be on the "threshold of decline," the World Health Organization announced today. The percentage of the world's population struck by TB peaked in 2004 and then held steady or even declined in 2005, according to the report, but the actual number of new cases increased to 8.8 million because of the growing world population. Dr.

More than 5 million Americans are living with Alzheimer's disease, a 10% increase since the last Alzheimer's Assn. estimate five years ago -- and a count that supports the long-forecast dementia epidemic as the population grays. Age is the biggest risk factor, and the report released Tuesday showed the nation is on track for skyrocketing Alzheimer's once the baby boomers start turning 65 in 2011.

FOR as long as anyone has kept statistics, and with a range of speculative explanations, what has always been irrefutable is that white people in America live longer than black people. Called the black-white life expectancy gap, it has widened, narrowed and widened again during the last 100 years. Now that gap has narrowed to a historically low level, from a 7.1-year gap in 1993 to a 5.3-year gap in 2003, the latest year for which national statistics are available.

Crystal meth use among gay men has spiked since 2005, according to preliminary data collected by a Los Angeles nonprofit agency, with those using the drug in the last year five times more likely to test positive for HIV. Of the 6,360 gay men the Los Angeles Gay & Lesbian Center tested for HIV or other sexually transmitted diseases last year, one in four reported using the drug at least once.

People from families prone to Parkinson's who drink coffee or smoke are less likely to develop the disease, researchers have reported in a finding that reinforces earlier observations and offers potential paths to treatment. Dr. William Scott of the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, who led the study, said the findings point clearly to dopamine -- a message-carrying chemical in the brain that falls to low levels in Parkinson's.

Increased use of angioplasty and the introduction of new drugs over the last seven years have nearly halved the number of hospitalized heart attack victims who die or suffer severe heart failure, an international team of researchers reports today. The study found "remarkable improvements" in the care of heart attack victims in all 14 countries studied, said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow of UCLA's David Geffen School of Medicine, who was not involved in the research.

Boys born in San Marino, a tiny republic surrounded by Italy, are expected to live to age 80, the world's longest male life expectancy at birth, but newborn girls in 31 other countries have even better prospects, the World Health Organization said Friday. Sierra Leone registered the shortest male life expectancy at birth, 37 years -- the same as that of girls in Swaziland, who were at the bottom of the female list -- in WHO's "World Health Statistics 2007."

Minority women living in Los Angeles County suffer disproportionate rates of chronic disease, according to a study released Wednesday by public health officials that examined the relationship between ethnicity and women's health. Women in general have higher rates of diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, arthritis, asthma and depression than men, the data showed, and minority women are at higher risk for many such ailments.

The number of West Nile virus infections in the U.S. rebounded last year, reaching the highest point since 2003, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Thursday. The CDC recorded nearly 4,300 West Nile cases, including about 1,500 patients who developed neuroinvasive disease -- a more severe form of infection that encompasses encephalitis, meningitis and muscle weakness or paralysis.

The nation's accidental death rate has been gradually creeping higher and is up 12% compared to the lowest rate on record, in 1992, according to a report released Thursday by the National Safety Council. The independent, nonprofit group warned that if the trend continues, the nation could surpass the all-time high of 116,385 accidental deaths, set in 1969. From 1969 until 1992, the rate of accidental deaths -- a number adjusted for population growth -- steadily declined.