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February 2005                                                                            Volume 8 - Number 1

    

 

Disaster Updates...

     

 

 

Guidelines for Handling Bodies after Disaster

Teri Lepovitz

 

In late 2004, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in cooperation with the Department for Health Action in Crises of the World Heal Organization (WHO), published a new manual, “Management of Dead Bodies in Disaster Situations.”  The book provides technical guidance for relief workers, such as those involved in actions following the December 26th earthquake and tsunami. When death is the result of disaster, it recommends procedures to ensure proper management of bodies, based on the following principles:

 

- The body does not pose a major health risk; 

-Victims should not be buried in common graves;

-Mass cremation should not take place if it goes against the cultural and religious norms of the population;

-All efforts should be made to identify bodies, and those not identified should be buried in a manner to permit later exhumation and identification.

 

Developed by the PAHO with input from a broad range of experts, this new manual analyzes the role of the State in coordinating and carrying out the processes of recovery, transfer, identification and final disposal of remains of disaster fatalities. 

This manual was also developed to debunk myths concerning the handling and the effects of mass casualties following a natural disaster. Myths about the treatment of the dead date back to the Middle Ages. Karl Western, of the U.S. National Institutes of Health, writing in one of the manual’s chapters, traces the origins of the myths to great epidemics such as the 14th century plague epidemic in Europe. Known as the “Black Death,” it claimed an estimated 25 million people, or one-third of Europe’s population. This experience, he noted, “gave rise to the appearance of many of the myths concerning corpses.” The manual points to other misguided measures that are often triggered by fears that corpses could transmit disease or generate epidemics.  Despite the work of experts, the lack of information and deeply held erroneous beliefs continue to cause faulty practices in managing dead bodies after disasters.

While acknowledging that certain infectious diseases do pose a small threat to those directly handling the bodies (these include tuberculosis, strep, hepatitis B and C, and HIV), the book offers guidance on protective measures to avoid contagion.

Available in English and Spanish, the 176-page text was developed as “a tool to be used by national and local authorities and professionals from public institutions that are affected” by natural disasters.  For more information, and to download a copy of the manual, see: http://www.paho.org/English/dd/ped/ManejoCadaveres.htm