Verbal autopsy: Let us enquire for the deceased

Globally, two-thirds (38 million) of 56 million annual deaths are still not registered and almost half of the world’s children go unregistered. Various systems for recording and reporting the vital events are well evolved in the industrialized, developed countries while they are still in the primal form in the developing countries. Information on vital statistics directs the policies and programmes of a country. Verbal autopsy (VA), defined as a method of obtaining as much information as possible about a deceased person by asking questions from family and others who can describe the mode of death and circumstances preceding death, may be used a surrogate for death certificates in ascertaining causes of death in countries with inadequate registration. Information on conditions causing death as well as those contributing to death should be collected using standardized VA formats and categorized according to the codes and rules defined within the International Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th edition (ICD 10).