Covid can be caught from DEAD BODIES for up to 17 days, scientists warn
- Japanese scientists find coronavirus in noses and lungs of human corpses
- Hamsters had traces of virus after death and spread it to live hamsters
- Evidence of infectious virus found in corpses after 17 days
Covid can spread from dead bodies to living people in zombie-like form, two new studies suggest.
Japanese scientists have found traces of the coronavirus in the nasal cavities and lungs of recently deceased human and hamster corpses up to 17 days after death.
They said the risk of transmission from cadavers to the general public was low, but confined primarily to coroners, pathologists, and health care workers, but that those and grieving families should take precautions. I warned you.
The authors of one study wrote, “Infectious viruses can be transmitted through post-mortem gases produced by the decomposition process of corpses or other post-mortem changes.”
in one study In rodents, researchers infected a group of hamsters with the coronavirus and euthanized them after 24 to 48 hours.
Their bodies were then disinfected in an alcohol bath for 30 seconds and wrapped in wire mesh to prevent them from being cannibalized by live hamsters in the same cage.
They divided the hamsters into two groups. One cage contained 1 wrapped carcass and 2 uninfected hamsters, and the other cage contained 1 infected live hamster together with 2 uninfected hamsters. rice field.
After 24 hours, they found high titers in the lungs and noses of live hamsters—residual antibodies from the infection.
SARS-CoV-2 was transmitted from all live infected hamsters under both conditions of co-housing, whereas dead infected hamsters maintained high titers of virus in their lungs and nose 24 hours after death. .
Traditional Japanese burial methods, in which the nostrils, mouth, ears, and rectum of a corpse are plugged with cotton pads to trap the gases that are naturally released when dead, were also found to prevent infection.
A practice called angel care effectively prevented transmission from dead hamsters.
in the Research involving humansIn 2021, Japanese scientists collected eight nasal swabs and 11 lung specimens from 11 autopsy cases with Covid to investigate the genetic makeup of the virus strain.
Growing evidence shows that the coronavirus can stay in the bodies of the dead for up to 17 days after death and even transmit the virus to the living.
Hamsters were euthanized, disinfected, and housed with live hamsters at 24 or 48 hours post-infection.High titers of virus remained in lungs and noses of dead hamsters 24 hours after death
Their results showed that the virus was present in 6 of 11 cases. Four of these 11 cases were found on nasal swabs, and 9 of 19 lung specimens showed evidence of virus as late as 13 days after death.
“Therefore, appropriate infection control measures should be taken when handling cadavers,” they concluded.
Japan’s health ministry this week decided to revoke pandemic-era funeral restrictions that urged bereaved families who had been in close contact with the dead to refrain from touching or seeing the bodies or even attending funerals, with many deprived the family of a final funeral opportunity. good bye.
The ministry said the guidelines set in July 2020 will be lifted by the end of the year.
This isn’t the first time scientists have found that corpses carry traces of infections and can infect others.
A 2021 study found that the infectious virus was still present in one of the COVID-19 corpses 17 days after death, but already showing signs of decay.
Meanwhile, a 2020 study in Thailand reported that people working on corpses who died of Covid-19 in a forensic medical department became immediately infected.
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