Hawkeye Reporter

There were 104 deaths with COVID-19 listed as the underlying cause reported in Iowa during the week ending December 11, a 18.2 percent increase over the previous week, according to The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In the week ending December 11, there were 728 deaths in the state. 19 percent of deaths were caused by heart disease, 18 percent were from cancer and 30.5 percent were from COVID-19. Additionally, 9.8 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 2021-12-11	Number of Deaths 2021-12-04
Heart disease	138	154
Malignant neoplasms (cancerous tumor)	131	125
COVID-19 (multiple cause)	118	99
COVID-19 (underlying cause)	104	88
Chronic lower respiratory diseases	46	33
Cerebrovascular diseases	31	28
Alzheimer's disease	25	17
Diabetes mellitus	16	32
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis	13	11
Influenza and pneumonia	< 10	10

Cause of Death	Number of Deaths 2021-12-11	Number of Deaths 2021-12-04
Alzheimer disease and dementia	71	51