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The first and last entries in the ICD describe a sociotechnical trajectory. The first disease in the ICD over the years has been cholera; unsurprising, since cholera was the issue that in the 1850s brought participants to the table in an attempt to deal with it as an international threat. As we noted in the introduction, this threat was exacerbated by the development of steamship technology, which allowed cholera sufferers to carry the disease back to Europe before dying. The last condition given in the book takes us to the other end of the sociotechnical arcthe creation of cyborgs. |
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The last condition listed in the ICD is: Z99 "Dependence on enabling machines and devices, not elsewhere classified"; with the very last entry, Z99.9, being "Dependence on unspecified enabling machine and device." By some standards we all now qualify for the Z99.9 condition. |
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The original sequence produced by William Farr (1885, 232) is reproduced in the latest ICD: |
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The ICD is a variable-axis classification. The structure has developed out of that proposed by William Farr in the early days of international discussions on classification structures. His scheme was that, for practical, epidemiological purposes, statistical data on diseases should be grouped in the following way: |
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epidemic diseases |
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constitutional or general diseases |
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local diseases arranged by site |
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developmental diseases |
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injuries |
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This pattern can be identified in the chapters of ICD-10. It has stood the test of time and, though in some ways arbitrary, is still regarded as a more useful structure for general epidemiological purposes than any of the alternatives tested. (ICD-10, 1: 13) |
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This classification scheme, then, makes no exaggerated claims to timeless truth. To the contrary. Its designers have attempted to paint a fluid picture of the world of diseaseone that is sensitive to changes in the world, to sociotechnical conditions, and to the work practices of statisticians and record keepers. |
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There Are Many Aids to Storytelling in the ICD |
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The classification system that is the ICD does more than provide a series of boxes into which diseases can be put; it also encapsulates a |
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