Intestinal Infectious Diseases

Abstract

We begin now a systematic study of mortality by cause, following the order of the rubric number of the Ninth Revision, 1975, of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD). Thus, we begin with the infectious or organismal diseases. It is necessary to give, if only for the ease of remembering, some character to the disease rubrics, so we give the description of each disease with its ICD number and, where relevant, define the inclusions to and exclusions from the particular rubric according to the rules accompanying the ICD. For the infectious diseases we give the name of the infective organism and some of its properties. There follows a necessarily brief account of the pathology of the disease. It is sometimes important to mention the time of the differentiation of the disease from others resembling it because before we have knowledge of the accurate differentiation between diseases, we cannot expect to know which organism was responsible for the disease. The descriptions of the diseases in the order of the ICD entails the mention of rubrics that cause but few deaths, and, so, if we adhered to the rule of one rubric to a section, there would be an undue number of sections. Occasionally, therefore, we have combined the discussion of a number of rubrics into one section. On the other hand, we have not followed the breakdown of the ICD classification of tuberculosis by principal site of the disease, but have given sections of interest or importance about race, certification, country, and so on, which would be unnecessary in the description of other diseases.