Worldwide health bodies have actually offered contrasting reports regarding the danger of COVID-19 transmission from remains to living people.
By Amanda Lien
BANGKOK, Thailand– Thailand is reporting the first fatal case of COVID-19 being sent from a dead patient to a medical examiner, prompting concerns for the safety of first responders and morgue and funeral home employees amid the global pandemic.
” This is the very first report on COVID-19 infection and death amongst medical personnel in a Forensic Medicine unit,” said a Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine study released on Sunday. “At present, there is no information on the exact variety of COVID-19 contaminated remains considering that it is not a regular practice to examine for COVID-19 in dead bodies in Thailand.”
The National Post reported that other global health bodies have offered clashing reports regarding the risk of COVID-19 transmission from remains to living individuals. Currently there is no significant research study conducted into the transmissibility of the coronavirus from the dead to the living.
On March 25, the head of Thailand’s Department of Medical Solutions had actually revealed the bodies of coronavirus victims were not contagious in the middle of reports of temples declining to perform funeral services, Buzzfeed Report. Some morgue workers have actually raised issues about infection control as hastily built facilities have actually been erected to handle COVID-19 deaths.
” Anybody entering into contact with a COVID-19 positive body, alive or dead, must be utilizing individual protective devices to avoid exposure,” health policy expert Summer season Johnson McGee of the University of New Haven informed BuzzFeed News by e-mail. “Autopsies and subsequent investigations present genuine dangers for coroners to acquire COVID-19”
In an online explainer, the World Health Company wrote that there is no evidence that corpses posture a substantial danger to health because many infections do not survive long in the body after death. The WHO advised care for anybody who works with or encounters human remains.
” Employees who consistently handle remains may risk contracting tuberculosis, bloodborne infections (eg hepatitis B and C and HIV) and intestinal infections (e.g. cholera, E. coli, liver disease A, rotavirus diarrhoea, salmonellosis, shigellosis and typhoid/paratyphoid fevers),” the explainer says.
