A respiratory illness that strikes the elderly knocked homicide off the list of the top 15 killers in the United States for the first time in 45 years in 2010, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Wednesday. 

In its annual report on U.S. mortality, the CDC said a condition known as pneumonitis had replaced murder as one of the Top 15 causes of death in the country, knocking homicide to 16th place in the list of top killers. It was the first time since 1965 that murder didn't make the Top 15. Murder was relegated to 16th place in 2010 with 16,065 killings. 

Overall, the CDC said age-adjusted death rates fell in 2010 to their lowest level in the 61 years the health agency has been tracking the data. But the big killers stalking the United States remained the same with heart disease and cancer continuing to account for nearly half the deaths. 

Average life expectancy in the United States rose slightly in 2010, to 78.7 years from 78.6 in 2009, the CDC said. In order to reach that age, Americans had to dodge a litany of potential killers, top among them heart disease and cancer. 

Of the more than 2.4 million deaths the health agency studied, the top 15 killers in 2010 were:

1. Heart disease (595,444 deaths) 

2. Cancer (573,855) 

3. Chronic lower respiratory diseases (137,789) 

4. Cerebrovascular diseases (129,180) 

5. Accidents (118.043) 

6. Alzheimer's disease (83,308) 

7. Diabetes (68,905) 

8. Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (50,472) 

9. Influenza and pneumonia (50,003) 

10. Suicide (37,793) 

11. Septicemia (34,843) 

12. Chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (31,802) 

13. Essential hypertension and hypertensive renal disease (26,577) 

14. Parkinson's disease (21,963) 

15. Pneumonitis due to solids or liquids (17,001) 

Age-adjusted death rates for nine of the 15 leading killers, including influenza and pneumonia, septicemia and cancer, fell in 2010, the CDC said.

But age-adjusted death rates for six, including Parkinson's disease and pneumonitis, rose.

Age-adjustment accounts for the impact of rising life over time.

From 2009 to 2010, infant mortality fell 3.9%, from 6.39 to 6.14 per 1,000 births.

The CDC report is available online at http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/.

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