Completing a Vermont Certificate of Death
Cause of Death
Stated very simply, a cause of death is the disease or injury responsible for starting the lethal sequence of events, which ultimately lead to death. A competent cause of death must be as etiologically specific as possible. Etiologically specific causes of death are the disease entities studied in basic pathology courses. Examples include:
- Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease
- Chronic alcoholism
- Hypertensive cardiovascular disease
- Blunt trauma
- Multiple Sclerosis
- Alzheimer’s disease
- Breast Carcinoma
- Parkinson’s disease
- Prostate carcinoma
- Pulmonary emphysema
- Diabetes Mellitus
- Hodgkin’s disease
- Viral Encephalitis*
- Bacterial Meningits*
- Petussis (whooping cough)*
- Human Immunodeficiency Virus*