U.S. life expectancy reaches record high

The Washington Post (6/12, A4, Brown) reports that "Americans' life expectancy reached a record high of 78.1 years in 2006, with disparities among ethnic groups and between the sexes generally narrowing," according to findings published in the June 11 issue of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Vital Statistics Reports. Notably, the "death rates from most diseases went down, with influenza mortality falling steeply, and AIDS mortality marking its 10th straight year of decline." Furthermore, "infant mortality in 2006 also fell from the previous year, continuing a trend stretching back nearly 50 years." Melonie P. Heron, Ph.D., a demographer at the National Center for Health Statistics, said, "This report has a lot of good news." The increase to 78.1 years "is due mainly to falling mortality rates in almost all the leading causes of death,"