Post-mortem transmission risk of infectious disease: A systematic review
•Some pathogens remain contaminants after host death.•There is a lake of solid scientific data on the risk of post-mortem transmission.•Tuberculosis is transmissible when handling cadavers and during autopsies.•Current laws are not only based on scientific data. Autopsies may expose to infectious ri...
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| Published in: | Legal medicine (Tokyo, Japan) Vol. 71; p. 102530 |
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| Main Authors: | , , , |
| Format: | Journal Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Ireland
Elsevier B.V
01-11-2024
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | Get full text |
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| Summary: | •Some pathogens remain contaminants after host death.•There is a lake of solid scientific data on the risk of post-mortem transmission.•Tuberculosis is transmissible when handling cadavers and during autopsies.•Current laws are not only based on scientific data.
Autopsies may expose to infectious risks. The objective of this study is to assess the risk of post-mortem transmission of HIV, HBV, HCV, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MBT), SARS-CoV2 and prion in the workplace and to estimate the duration of their infectiousness.
the PRISMA 2020 guideline was used. Pubmed, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Sciencedirect databases were assessed until February 28, 2023. We searched for articles in any language and any date of publication. Studies involving animals, transmission between two living people or transmission outside the workplace were excluded. Risk of bias was assessed using the appropriate assessment tools for each type of study. A descriptive analysis was performed.
A total of 46 studies were included. Cases of post-mortem transmission were certain for HIV (n = 1) and MBT (n = 18). The longest post-mortem interval for positive diagnostic tests was 17 days for HIV, 60 for HBV, 7 for HCV, 36 for MBT and 17 for SARS-CoV2. The longest post-mortem interval for positive cultures was 21 h for HIV, 6 days for HBV, 36 days for MBT, 17 days for SARS-CoV2. The methodology of the studies was heterogeneous, some of them associated with a high risk of bias.
There is a lack of consistent data in the literature concerning the infectivity of cadavers, except for MBT. Legislation appears to be based on minimizing contact between the biological agent and the professional. In the absence of recent robust scientific data, workers should systematically follow the best practice recommendations. |
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| Bibliography: | ObjectType-Article-2 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Undefined-1 ObjectType-Feature-3 ObjectType-Review-4 content type line 23 |
| ISSN: | 1344-6223 1873-4162 1873-4162 |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.legalmed.2024.102530 |