International Adoption of Principles of Morbidity and Mortality Classification

Abstract

ADOPTION by the First World Health Assembly at Geneva on July 24, 1948, of Regulations No. 1 carried to completion one of the tasks which were given to the Interim Commission of the World Health Organization by the International Health Conference held in New York City in June and July, 1946.1 These regulations, which are to be known as Nomenclature Regulations-1948, provide for the formal adoption, internationally, of the Sixth Revision of the International Lists of Diseases and Causes of Death as well as uniform procedures in the compilation and publication of morbidity and mortality statistics. In conformance with the constitution of the World Health Organization, the regulations will come into force for each member nation one year from date of adoption except for those nations which formally record rejection or reservations within that period. For nearly fifty years the International List of Causes of Death has been used by an increasing number of national and other agencies in the compilation of statistics of causes of death. The Sixth Decennial Revision Conference,