Ensuring Safety of Forensic Medical Examiners during Autopsy of Suspected or Detected Cases of Deadly Communicable Diseases

Abstract

Background: Forensic medical examiners are known to be exposed to a combined effect of occupational risk factors potentially leading to adverse health outcomes. In the current epidemiologic situation largely influenced by the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, postmortem examination of the bodies having signs of deadly communicable diseases, including the novel coronavirus disease, poses a high infection risk, thus making the development and implementation of appropriate preventive measures an urgent and important task. Objective: To summarize and systematize the results of scientific research and requirements of legal and regulatory documents in the field of ensuring workplace safety of forensic medical examiners. Materials and methods: We searched for literary sources published in Russian and English in 2000–2021 in the PubMed, eLibrary, and Cyberleninka databases using such keywords as “healthcare workers”, “safety”, “forensic medical examiner”, “prosector”, and “deadly infections”. We conducted an analytical review of legal documents regulating safety in the conduct of forensic medical examination. Based on the relevance of search results, we selected 30 articles and five legal and regulatory documents for this review and carried out their content analysis using descriptive and analytical methods. Results: As a solution to the problem of epidemiological surveillance, a series of modular buildings for postmortem examination of patients with suspected or confirmed deadly infectious diseases, including COVID-19, was developed and introduced. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that in the context of the current pandemic, it is critical to update the requirements for biological safety of forensic experts stipulated in sanitary rules and norms. Construction of modular special purpose buildings in the city of Kazan contributed to improvement of biological safety during autopsy of COVID-19 victims.