Prairie State Wire

There were 68 deaths with Alzheimer's disease listed as the underlying cause reported in Illinois during the week ending Feb. 5, a 34 percent decrease from the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending Feb. 5, there were 1,826 deaths in the state. 18.5 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 15.7 percent were from cancer and 35.7 percent were from COVID-19.

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 2022-02-05	Number of Deaths 2022-01-29
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	350	646
Heart disease	337	417
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	302	573
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	287	395
Cerebrovascular diseases	83	127
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	80	76
Alzheimer's disease	68	103
Diabetes mellitus	48	50
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	26	44
Influenza and pneumonia	21	30