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Review
. 2020 May 4:2:154-156.
doi: 10.1016/j.fsisyn.2020.04.004. eCollection 2020.

Dental autopsy recommendations in SARS-CoV-2 infected cases

Emilio Nuzzolese  1 , Hemlata Pandey  2 , Francesco Lupariello  1
Affiliations
Review

Dental autopsy recommendations in SARS-CoV-2 infected cases

Emilio Nuzzolese et al. Forensic Sci Int Synerg. .

Abstract

Unidentified human remains with unknown medical history can always pose biological hazards to forensic pathologists and odontologists, including hepatitis C, HIV infection, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), hemorrhagic fever viruses such as Ebola, meningitis and now Sars-Cov2. The pandemic of the new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has reached 185 Countries with an increasing number of deaths. Forensic pathologists and odontologists may find themselves having to perform an identification autopsy to confirmed or suspected Sars-Cov2 positive deaths. By respecting the entire set of universal precautions and recommendations the highlighted risks can be minimized, and best practice in human identification should always be a priority for human rights of the dead. The following article is a summary of the recommendations for conducting dental autopsies and management of suspected COVID-19 cases.

Keywords: Covid-19; Dental autopsy; Forensic odontology; Human identification; Novel corona virus.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

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