Prairie State Wire

There were 199 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in Illinois during the week ending August 28, a 5.9 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending August 28, there were 2,288 deaths in the state. 19.6 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 19.4 percent were from cancer and 18.1 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 9.1 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 2021-08-28	Number of Deaths 2021-08-21
Heart disease	448	434
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	445	428
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	215	198
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	199	188
Cerebrovascular diseases	111	108
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	90	88
Alzheimer's disease	89	52
Diabetes mellitus	67	62
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	46	53
Influenza and pneumonia	25	30

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-08-28	Number of Deaths 2021-08-21
Alzheimer disease and dementia	208	176