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Life Expectancy At All-time High In Massachusetts

Life expectancy for people in Massachusetts has hit an all time high.  WAMC’s Paul Tuthill reports.

         The Massachusett Department of Public Health report said  overall life expectancy was 80. 7 years in 2009…an improvement of more than 2 years  over a decade.. The state’s Secretary of Health and Human Services, Dr. Judy Ann Bigby  credits better access to medical care and an emphasis on preventing disease.

         Mortality rates from strokes, heart disease, cancer and diabetes all dropped and deaths from HIV-AIDS have declined dramatically…At the height of the AIDs epidemic there were nearly a thousand deaths a year.. in 2009 tthere were  124 deaths.

The record-setting tenure of Springfield Mayor Domenic Sarno. The 2011 tornado and its recovery that remade the largest city in Western Massachusetts. The fallout from the deadly COVID outbreak at the Holyoke Soldiers Home. Those are just a few of the thousands and thousands of stories WAMC’s Pioneer Valley Bureau Chief Paul Tuthill has covered for WAMC in his nearly 17 years with the station.