When an Ebola infected dead body has to be wrapped in two bags and then be buried will it allow the decomposition of the infected dead body?
Ebola transmission is maximum when the patient is dying and soon after, due to the huge viral load and hemorrhagic release of body fluids. So safe burial is mandatory to stop transmission. In ebola epidemics, burial rituals of deceased patients are always described as high risk moments and fueled transmission. Two impermeable bags are needed to minimize contact transmission to relatives and burial teams. The body will decompose normally, impermeability does not preserve it.
Regard this way of transmission, there is an interesting article published in JID from long time about it (attached):
Interventions to Control Virus Transmission during an Outbreak of Ebola Hemorrhagic Fever: Experience from Kikwit, Democratic Republic of the Congo, 1995
http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/179/Supplement_1/S263.long
I hope could be also useful.
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Let me add my two pence to your question...much as how I lend support to Alexandre Carvalho's reply I think the safest way for disposing ebola corpses is by cremation. while ebola corpses will appear safe within those polythene bags, in epidemic situation like in Sierra Leone where burial grounds are now overfilled and graves are being dug on recent burial sites, this act tends to exposed recently buried ebola corpse to both health and non health workers and thereby heighten the risk of infection. in countries with poor public health monitoring, exposed corpse whether inside polythene bags or not offers new risk compared to incinerated corpses.
Thanks Alexandre Carvalho, Alfonso J. Rodriguez-Morales and Jia Kangbai for your wonderful useful reply. But my real query is how the body in two layered bag will decompose? secondly we are applying Chlorine solution on the body, this will also hamper the bacterial activity. And finally what are chances of accidental transmission during burial?
Thanks Surendra Reddy Edula for sharing this information but my question is still a question whether these bags are biodegradable and ????will body decompose normally??????
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