Seroprevalence of human immunodeficiency virus, hepatitis B virus, and hepatitis C virus among the forensic autopsy cases in South India

Abstract

A dead body is handled by health workers and relatives during shifting, transporting, and autopsy. Cadavers are known as potential sources of infections like human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), tuberculosis, Ebola, H1N1, and prion diseases. The objective of our study was to estimate the seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, and HCV in forensic autopsies. We included 421 cases in this study, which were autopsied during 2015–2017. It was conducted in a tertiary hospital in South India (Pondicherry). We took the blood sample for testing HIV, HBV, and HCV. The prevalence of HIV/HBV/HCV was 2.9% (95% CI: 1.6% 5%, n=12). The seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, and HCV was 0.7% (95% CI: 0.2% -2.1%, n=3), 1.9% (95% CI: 0.9% -3.7%, n=8) and 0.2% (95% CI: 0.03% -1.6%, n=1), respectively. Cases with tattoos/multiple injection marks/scar of previous surgery had 4.3 times higher odds (95% CI: 1.2 – 14.7, p-value-0.02) of having HIV/HBV/HCV compared to those without it. We found a low seroprevalence of HBV, and HCV in forensic autopsies except for HIV, which was a little higher compared to the general population. These findings can be used to come up with specific guidelines to deal with cases more carefully to avoid the risk of infections.