Infection control at autopsy: a guide for pathologists and autopsy personnel

The emergence of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), Hepatitis C, Creutzfeldt–Jacob Disease and antibiotic resistant tuberculosis, staphylococcus and enterococcus have increasingly focused attention on infectious hazards in healthcare occupations. Relatively few publications have dealt with hazards to, and infection control methods for, autopsy pathologists and technicians. It is important that those performing and in charge of autopsy services reacquaint themselves with the risks, routes of infection, and safe and sane control methods for performing autopsies. This review is a guide to autopsy infection control procedures and equipment for hepatitis, tuberculosis, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and prion associated diseases (Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease [CJD] and variants). Tuberculosis is re-emerging as a hazard deserving particular attention by pathologists, because it is still too often unanticipated.