Over the past 70 years, significant advances have been made in determining the causes of death in populations not served by official medical certification of cause at the time of death using a technique known as Verbal Autopsy (VA). VA involves an interview of the family or caregivers of the deceased after a suitable bereavement interval about the circumstances, signs and symptoms of the deceased in the period leading to death. The VA interview data are then interpreted by physicians or, more recently, computer algorithms, to assign a probable cause of death. VA was originally developed and applied in field research settings. This paper traces the evolution of VA methods with special emphasis on the World Health Organization’s (WHO)’s efforts to standardize VA instruments and methods for expanded use in routine health information and vital statistics systems in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). These advances in VA methods are culminating this year with the release of the 2022 WHO Standard Verbal Autopsy (VA) Toolkit. This paper highlights the many contributions the late Professor Peter Byass made to the current VA standards and methods, most notably, the development of InterVA, the most commonly used automated computer algorithm for interpreting data collected in the WHO standard instruments, and the capacity building in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) that he promoted. This paper also provides an overview of the methods used to improve the current WHO VA standards, a catalogue of the changes and improvements in the instruments, and a mapping of current applications of the WHO VA standard approach in LMICs. It also provides access to tools and guidance needed for VA implementation in Civil Registration and Vital Statistics Systems at scale.

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The present study was aimed to compare the effect of two mixtures of medicinal plants as feed additives on the lamb's performance. The first additive consisted of a 1:1:1 Rosemary, Thyme, and Peppermint mixture (RTPM). While, the second additive consisted of a 1:1:1 Lemongrass, Parsley, and Coriander mixture (LPCM). Twelve male Saidi lambs of 20.49 ± 0.76 kg body weight (BW) were randomly allocated into three groups. The first group received a control diet (concentrate-to-forage ratio: 70:30) without additives, the second group received a control diet supplemented with 1.5% RTPM on a dry matter (DM) basis, and the third group received control diet supplemented with 1.5% LPCM on a DM basis. The experiment lasted for 150 days. The results showed that RTPM had lowered DMI (P = 0.0692) while the LPCM had higher DMI as compared the to control. The supplementation of RTPM or LPCM did not have a significant effect on nutrients digestibility and their nutritive value. Similarly, ruminal pH, ruminal temperature and total volatile fatty acid (TVFA) were not affected (P > 0.05) by RTPM or LPCM, while ammonia-N (P = 0.0043), and total nitrogen (P < 0.0001) were higher for RTPM and LPCM than Control. The average daily gain (ADG), total weight gains (TWG), and feed conversion ratio (FCR) of the lambs receiving RTPM or LPCM rations were greater (P ≤ 0.0057) than the control diet. The economic efficiency was improved by the RTPM addition (P < 0.0001) while the LPCM diet decreased economic efficiency compared to the control.