15 June 2023

The ICD-11 is the latest version of the World Health Organization's International Classification of Diseases (ICD), and it has many applications in health and medicine.

The WHO has published a guideline on Certification of deaths during pregnancy, childbirth, or the puerperium where confirmed or suspected COVID-19 is a cause of death.

Please click here to learn more about the coding of maternal deaths due to COVID-19.

Universal Health Coverage (UHC) includes essential health services, from health promotion to prevention, treatment, rehabilitation, and palliative care with easy access when and where services are needed without financial hardship. Thus, clinical guidelines must reflect holistic interprofessional services across the life-course, considering care at all levels and all aspects of a health condition that impact on functioning, health and well-being.

Although South Africa has a well-established Civil Registration and Vital Statistics system, the quality of mortality statistics obtained from the death notification forms completed by medical doctors is still suboptimal.