A retrospective survey of death care practices and procedures in handling suspected and confirmed COVID-19 deceased bodies in the mortuary of a resource-poor tertiary healthcare facility in Uyo, South-South Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction: the death care of deceased bodies of confirmed COVID-19 cases is a critical component of holistic healthcare provision for COVID-19 cases particularly from the public health perspective of infection prevention/control. Regrettably, there is a dearth of research-based information on the management (death care) of COVID-19 deceased bodies. Thus, we aimed to determine the preservation/storage death care practices and procedures in accordance with infection prevention/control measures used for deceased bodies of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 cases deposited in our mortuary and explore their antemortem age/sex distribution.

Methods: a retrospective hospital-based cross-sectional survey done at the mortuary unit of Department of Histopathology, University of Uyo Teaching Hospital (UUTH), Uyo, Akwa Ibom State (covering January 2020 to September 2021). Our study participants were all deceased bodies of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 cases deposited in/cared for at UUTH mortuary within this period.

Results: we found 28 suspected/confirmed COVID-19 deceased bodies, of which 51.86% were within the 6^th and 7^th decade of life and 71.43% were males (M/F = 2.5/1). They constituted 5.93% of the deceased bodies deposited in UUTH mortuary within this period. All (100%) were embalmed, and 75% were embalmed by immersion. The peak periods of their deposition were within the first halves of the two years affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Conclusion: we provided death care (mainly through embalmment) for deceased bodies of suspected/confirmed COVID-19 cases in our resource poor setting using locally derived innovative means while still adhering to infection prevention/control measures to protect our death care workers in the mortuary.