NEW DELHI: A cause for concern for morgue technicians and those working in funeral homes as scientists in Thailand is said to have reported the first case of COVID-19 being transmitted from corpses (dead) to living people.
Transmission between dead & living
Scientists believe that the first case of someone who died after catching COVID-19 from a dead body was reported to be a “forensic practitioner” in Bangkok.
The case was reported in a letter published by the Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine on Saturday. It described it as “the first report on COVID-19 infection and death among medical personnel in a Forensic Medicine unit.”
Real concern
“Not just the medical examiners, but morgue technicians and the people in funeral homes need to take extra care,” said Angelique Corthals, a professor of pathology at CUNY’s John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “It is a real concern,” as per a Buzzfeed report.
The authors of this journal are Won Sriwijitalai of the RVT Medical Center in Bangkok, Thailand, and Viroj Wiwanitkit of Hainan Medical University in Haikou, China.
“At present, there is no data on the exact number of COVID-19 contaminated corpses since it is not a routine practice to examine for COVID-19 in dead bodies in Thailand,” it added.
Meanwhile, the number of confirmed cases in Thailand hit 2,733, while the death toll remains at 47.