Medical certification of cause of death

Death is inevitable and reporting of death to the concerned authority is mandatory as mortality statistics are key indicators of the health trend in the population. World Health Organization (WHO) has designed 2 (two) numbers of medical part of cause of death certificates i.e FORM NO. 4 & FORM NO. 4A. Registered Medical practitioners have to certify the cause of institutional deaths and non institutional deaths in FORM No. 4 and FORM No. 4A respectively and send them to the Registrar of Births & Deaths who after receiving them along with the FORM NO. 2 (death report form), filled up by the legal informant of the death, will issue the death certificate where cause of the death will be kept confidential. The data on cause of death contained in these certificates are essential for assessing the effectiveness of various public health programmes and also for better health planning & management.