Autopsy room for Covid-19
COMFIT proposes its new brochure containing further information to take stock of the situation on primary and secondary protection barriers to be adopted in the autopsy room COVID-19 of Pathological Anatomy and Forensic Medicine for the safety of workers and the community in the case of autopsies on infected corpses Covid-19.
The post mortem allows to collect important information of medical, diagnostic and scientific. Pathologists and forensic doctors normally perform autopsies of infected subjects whose state of infection is not always known, but the structures in which they operate very often are not suitable to guarantee the level of safety for staff and for the community required by current regulations, during an autopsy coronavirus infected body.
Yet recent news reports show that there is a growing focus on safety in the autopsy room in the case of work activities in which there is a risk of exposure to biological agents, defined as any micro-organism even if genetically modified, cell culture and human endoparasite that could cause infections, allergies or intoxications.
The risks inherent in the work carried out during an autopsy infected Covid-19 can be reasonably minimized through the adoption of appropriate behavioral protocols, the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) and the use of suitable equipment (primary barriers ) in adequate security structures (secondary barriers) such as the Coronavirus Covid-19 autopsy room.
It is therefore a good rule to operate (necessarily when the presence of pathogens of the III and IV group is expected) within secondary barriers, namely in autopsy rooms designed specifically to ensure biological containment by Covid-19.
Traditionally there are three levels of containment: basic (PCL2), safety containment (PCL3) and maximum safety containment (PCL4), better described in the technical standard UNI EN 12128.
Biological containment measures shall also include for PCL3 and PCL4 levels a strict control of the effluent and waste produced, in the specific case in the autopsy room, and of the materials used or come into contact during Coronavirus autopsy. Also the waste systems will have to be conveyed in appropriate plant of depuration, for the inactivation.
The Biological Safety autopsy room (PCL3 level) is indispensable for performing Coronavirus Covid-19 autopsies on bodies infected with pathogens classified in Group III.
