By Philip Newman
The New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene reported 57,466 deaths in the five boroughs in 2004, the most recent period for which statistics were available. That was 1,747 fewer than in 2003. “We reached another historic low number of deaths in 2004 and life expectancy increased by another four months over the past two years,” said Health Department Commissioner Dr. Thomas Frieden. “But there are still too many people dying early and from preventable heart disease, cancer and HIV,” Frieden said. “Large and unacceptable racial and geographic disparities persist, particularly in HIV, heart disease and diabetes.” “The greatest contributing factors to the decrease in deaths were a reduction of 14 percent in heart attack deaths and other heart disease deaths and fewer deaths from HIV/AIDS, colon cancer and homicide,” the annual report stated. The Health Department said the causes of the 57,466 deaths in New York City in 2004 were led by heart disease with 22,632 deaths, cancer (13,632), influenza and pneumonia (3,003), stroke (1,794) and diabetes (1,734). Queens, with a death rate of six per 1,000 people, was lower than the citywide rate of 7.2 and lower than any of the other four boroughs, including Manhattan (6.7), Bronx (7), Brooklyn (6.9) and Staten Island (7.8). In 2004, 1,451 people died of HIV/AIDS, a decrease of 12 percent from 2003, an 80 percent drop since deaths from HV/AIDS hit a peak in 1994. For the first time since 1984, HIV/AIDS is no longer the leading case of death for any age group in New York City. However HIV is still the third leading cause of death of those younger than 65. The death rate for Queens fell to its lowest in Elmhurst/Corona at 4 with 4.8 in Sunnyside/Woodside and Jackson Heights. The high was 10.1 in the Rockaways. Despite the city's lowest death rate, Queens led all boroughs in a highest number of certain diseases and other death-cause categories, including skin cancer, kidney and renal cancer, brain cancer, atherosclerosis, emphysema, accidental falls and what the Health Department calls symptoms, signs and abnormal findings not otherwise identified. Flushing led the city in the highest number of deaths from heart disease with 1,586. Jamaica had 1,291 and Maspeth/Forest Hills 1,078. The Rockaways had the highest infant mortality rate in Queens with 13.6 and Queens Village was 9.9, Fresh Meadows and Briarwood were both 5, and Sunnyside/Woodside were 0.7. 107 deaths from diabetes in Jamaica was surpassed citywide only by 133 in Flatbush in Brooklyn. The Health Department also reported the most popular names for New York City babies in 2004. For girls, the most popular name for Hispanics was Ashley, for blacks it was Kayla, for whites it was Sarah and Asian-Pacific Islanders it was Emily. For boys, it was Justin among Hispanics, for blacks it was Elijah, for whites it was Michael and Asian-Pacific Islanders it was Jason.
