To date, little is known regarding the transmission risks of SARS-CoV-2 infection for subjects involved in handling, transporting, and examining deceased persons with known or suspected COVID-19 positivity at the time of death. This experimental study aims to define if and/or how long SARS-CoV-2 persists with replication capacity in the tissues of individuals who died with/from COVID-19, thereby generating infectious hazards. Sixteen patients who died with/from COVID-19 who underwent autopsy between April 2020 and April 2021 were included in this study. Based on PMI, all samples were subdivided into two groups: ‘short PMI’ group (eight subjects who were autopsied between 12 to 72 h after death); ‘long PMI’ (eight subjects who were autopsied between 24 to 78 days after death). All patients tested positive for RT-PCR at nasopharyngeal swab both before death and on samples collected during post-mortem investigation. Moreover, a lung specimen was collected and frozen at −80 °C in order to perform viral culture. The result was defined based on the cytopathic effect (subjective reading) combined with the positivity of the RT-PCR test (objective reading) in the supernatant. Only in one sample (PMI 12 h), virus vitality was demonstrated. This study, supported by a literature review, suggests that the risk of cadaveric infection in cases of a person who died from/with COVID-19 is extremely low in the first hours after death, becoming null after 12 h after death, confirming the World Health Organization (WHO) assumed in March 2020 and suggesting that the corpse of a subject who died from/with COVID-19 should be generally considered not infectious.
【저자키워드】 COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, RT-PCR, Autopsy, Viral transmission, 【초록키워드】 SARS-COV-2 infection, Infection, lung, risk, Transmission, virus, Nasopharyngeal swab, Patient, death, WHO, Post-mortem, viral culture, Cytopathic effect, RT-PCR test, Deceased, World Health Organization, literature review, tissue, subject, individual, specimen, handling, positive, supernatant, hazards, Cadaveric, defined, tested, collected, died, involved, eight, was collected, supported, demonstrated, to define, replication capacity, assumed, persist, 【제목키워드】 prevention, hazard, dignity, Safeguarding,