Prevalence of HIV Cases Among the Tuberculosis Deaths at Autopsy

Abstract

Mortuary/Autopsy room is a relatively high risk workplace. Infections such as Tuberculosis (TB) and HIV pose a risk to the autopsy workers. These infections pose a greater risk since many times they are not even diagnosed until the autopsy is done in the mortuary itself. In this study, we intend to analyse the prevalence of HIV in TB infected bodies and also the risks in a mortuary and find ways to tackle the hazards of contracting infections in a mortuary. This is a retrospective case-based study where we consider 63 autopsy cases with TB during 2010-2015 conducted at District Wenlock Hospital, Mangalore, India and analysed them. Astatistical software SPSS was used for data analysis. The study has established that there is a clear correlation between positive HIV and positive TB cases at the autopsy. Most of these cases were found to be during the rainy season and co-related to the occupation of manual labourers. Since these infections pose a hazard to autopsy workers, there is a requirement to strengthen their safety.