No possibility of spread of coronavirus from dead body: US professor

Hyderabad: A professor of a US university has claimed that there is no harm from the dead body of a Covid patient it doesn't infect another person.

Vijay V Yeldandi, Professor of Medicine and Surgery, University of Illinois at Chicago Division of Infectious Diseases said that in case of demise of a person due to Covid, there is no possibility of releasing the virus into the air surrounding the deceased.

Expressing concern over people refusing to take back family members after resolution of the illness due to Covid19, the doctor wrote to Telangana State Planning Board vice-chairman B Vinod Kumar urging him to take steps on behalf of the government to encourage general public at large and bring in appropriate rational measures to respond to the Covid problem and reduce social stigma.

Prof Vijay Yeldandi said that many people are refusing to take the dead body of their family member due to an irrational fear of contagion, hence old vulnerable people were facing abandonment by their own families. He further said that there was an extremely irrational fear of contagion leading to social ostracism of infected as well as affected family members by their neighbours. Some unfortunate individuals who have succumbed to the illness were being denied proper last rites by a variety of entities once again due to irrational fears of contagion.

Yeldandi said that once an individual recovers from acute illness due to Covid they are no longer contagious regardless of being persistently positive by RTPCR testing. In the unfortunate event of demise due to Covid, since respiration has ceased there is no possibility of releasing the virus into the air surrounding the deceased. As long as anyone involved in touching the deceased is using appropriate PPE there is no risk of contagion. It is inhumane to deny the deceased proper last rites, said Yeldandi.