International Classification of Diseases

History

The Hindu text known as Sushruta Samhita (600 AD) is possibly the earliest effort to classify diseases and injuries. The first statistical study of diseases and causes of death published in the world is considered to be the ‘Natural and Political Observation Made Upon the Bills of Mortality’ of John Graunt, published in London in 1662. Graunt prepared a list of 83 causes of death, mixing etiology, pathology, circumstances, and other criteria, and recorded the number of citizens who died of each. However, the first internationally recognized attempt to systematically classify diseases is generally considered to be the Nosologia Methodica of Franc¸ois Bossier de Lacroix, better known as Sauvages (1706–1777). More then one century later, in 1891, the International Statistical Institute created a committee, chaired by the Chief of the Statistical Services of the City of Paris, Jacques Bertillon, to prepare a classification of causes of death, which was presented and approved at the 1893 meeting. The basic structure was based on that proposed by William Farr (1808–1883) in the beginning of the international discussions on classification structure. The scheme was, for all purposes, epidemiological or statistical, to organize diseases and conditions as follows:

• Epidemic diseases
• Constitutional or general diseases
• Local diseases arranged by site
• Developmental diseases
• Injuries

This general structure, which can still be identified in ICD-10, was reviewed in every new revision but is maintained because it is still considered more useful than any other tested.

The Bertillon Classification of Causes of Death, as this classification was first called, was adopted by several countries, and in 1898 the American Public Health Association recommended its adoption by Canada, Mexico, and the United States. It was also suggested by the Association that the classification should be revised every 10 years. Following that suggestion, the French Government convoked, in 1900, the First International Conference for the Revision of the International List of Causes of Death (Bertillon's classification). In August 1900, the First Revision was adopted.

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