Cancer and Heart Disease are Leading Causes of Death in Maverick County & Texas
By: Jose G. Landa, Copyright 2015, Eagle Pass Business Journal, Inc.
According to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services, the leading causes of death in Texas are different forms of cancer and heart disease. Maverick County is no exception as cancer and heart disease are its leading causes of death among its citizens.
Maverick County is part of state Health Region 8. Texas is divided into 11 Health Regions statewide.
According to the Texas Department of State Health Services, there are 39 leading causes of deaths recorded in Texas.
State Health Region 8, including Maverick County, had a total of 20,599 deaths related to theses 39 selected deaths causes in 2013.
The leading causes of deaths in Texas include” 1. Tuberculosis, 2. Syphilis, 3. Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) disease, 4. Malignant neoplasms of stomach, colon, rectum and anus, pancreas , trachea, bronchus and lung, cervix uteri, corpus uteri and ovary, urinary tract, 5. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, 6. Leukemia, Other malignant neoplasms, 7. Diabetes mellitus, 8. Alzheimer’s disease, 9. Major Cardiovascular Diseases, Diseases of heart, Hypertensive heart disease with or without renal disease, Ischemic heart diseases and Other diseases of heart, 10. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease, 11. Cerebrovascular diseases ,12. Atherosclerosis, 13. Other diseases of the circulatory system,14. Influenza and pneumonia, 15. Chronic lower respiratory diseases 16.,Peptic ulcer, 17. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis, 18. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis, 19. Pregnancy, childbirth and the puerperium, 20. Certain conditions originating in the perinatal period, 21. Congenital malformations, 22. deformations and chromosomal abnormalities, 23. Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), Symptoms, signs and abnormal clinical and laboratory findings, not elsewhere classified (excluding SIDS) All other diseases (Residual), 24. Motor vehicle accidents, All other and unspecified accidents and adverse effects, 25. Intentional self-harm (suicide), 26. Assault (homicide) and No. 27 All other external causes.
The Texas Department of State Health Services Region 8 provides public health services in twenty-eight counties of south central Texas including Maverick County. Region 8 borders the Texas-Mexico border on the Rio Grande River on the west and the Gulf Coast in the east.
Under all the causes of death underlined in the DSHS report, Region 8 came in third with a total of 20,599 deaths reported in 2013, Region 6 was second with a total of 37,550 deaths, and Region 3 had the most deaths from the 39 outlined causes of death under the report with 43,479.
Under the study, the leading causes of deaths suffered throughout the 11 health regions in the State of Texas in 2013 was Major Heart and Cardiovascular Diseases with 52,568 deaths and Malignant neoplasms of cancer with 38,239 deaths.
State Health Region 3 had a total of 9,495 deaths due to malignant neoplasms, cancer while Region 6 had 8,635 deaths, Region 8, which includes Maverick County, had 4,350 deaths, and Region 7 had a total of 4,301 deaths.
The report notes that Maverick County had a total of 339 deaths from the 39 causes outlined under the report and that 73 or 21 % of those deaths were from malignant neoplasms and cancer and 99 or 29 % were from Major Heart and Cardiovascular Diseases.
The DSHS report identifies that the leading cause of deaths in Maverick County are a variety of malignant neoplasms with 30 deaths reported, trachea, bronchus and lung cancer with 10 deaths reported, colon, rectum 2 deaths, pancreas 4 deaths, breast cancer deaths 7, cervix uteri, corpus uteri and ovary cancer deaths 4, prostate cancer deaths 4, urinary tract4 deaths, Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma 4, and 2 Leukemia deaths reported.
A check and comparison of county areas along the Texas-Mexico border region shows that Maverick County had more malignant neoplasms deaths than Val Verde County with 70 deaths, Uvalde County had 56 deaths, Dimmit County had 13 malignant neoplasms deaths reported to SDHS in 2013, Kinney County reported 9 deaths, Presidio County had 19 deaths reported, Terrell County had 4 deaths, Brewster County had 14 deaths, Hudspeth County had 3 deaths reported, and Starr County had 58 deaths reported from malignant neoplasms in 2013.
It is important to note that a majority of malignant neoplasms deaths and major cardiovascular deaths on the Texas-Mexico border counties in 2013 were trachea, bronchus and lung cancer deaths. It can also be determined that the report only shows the deaths reported for each region and do not include the number of deaths from certain regions that would have passed away in other regions which would then be accounted for in the specific region where a particular person died in. In other words, if a Maverick County person died in San Antonio, Texas, then that person would be counted under Bexar County deaths instead of Maverick County.
Both Maverick County reported 13 deaths related to trachea, bronchus, and lung cancer while Val Verde County reported 10 during 2013.
According to the DSHS report, El Paso County led all Texas-Mexico border counties with 1,013 malignant neoplasms deaths reported in 2013, Hidalgo County had 814 deaths, Webb County had a total of 266 malignant neoplasms deaths reported, and Cameron County had 491 deaths.
El Paso County once again led all Texas-Mexico border counties in major cardiovascular deaths with 1,236 in 2013, Hidalgo County had 1,167, Cameron County had 729 deaths, Starr County had 123 deaths, Maverick County had 99, Dimmit County had 21deaths reported in 2013, Kinney County had 14 deaths, Presidio County had 26, Terrell County had 3 deaths reported, Brewster County had 23 deaths, and Hudspeth County had 2 deaths.
A review of the Texas Department of Health Services statistics for 2013 found that cancer-related deaths and heart disease-related deaths are the two largest causes of death in Maverick County as well as in the State of Texas.
