Lack of proper gear exposes morgue workers to TB

Mahendra, 35, often wakes up in a sweat in the middle of the night, haunted by images of haphazard piles of dead bodies that lie in the morgue of JJ Hospital on bloodstained floors. Mahendra (name changed to protect identity), works at the mortuary of JJ Hospital and has been earning his bread and butter for years by dissecting dead bodies before autopsy at the post-mortem room of the hospital. Now, as claimed by him, doctor has suggested that working on the dead has taken a toll on his health as three months back, he was diagnosed with Tuberculosis.

Mahendra is currently on unpaid leave undergoing treatment for TB. As mortuary workers are not provided with paid leaves, this forces them to join back to work while still undergoing treatment for TB.

Like Mahendra, 78 morgue workers from four state-run post-mortem centres in the city at JJ, Cooper, Bhagwati and Rajawadi hospitals are forced to work without protective gear, and unhealthy conditions make them vulnerable to TB. Every year, one to two mortuary workers get infected and in the past five years, three workers have succumbed to it, as per the report submitted to National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).

Now, with no other option in hand, the staff members have filed a complaint with the NHRC. While hearing the case during the two-days public hearing on medical negligence cases at TISS, justice Cyriac Joseph, acting chairperson of NHRC, has kept the case open and summon notices have been sent to police department and state home ministry as they are responsible for these morgues.

“When a body is brought to the morgue, we aren’t told if it is TB-infected. So, unknowingly when we cut and open the lungs, the bacteria gets into the air and affects us as it dies only after 36 hours in a cadaver,” said a worker from Cooper Hospital on condition of anonymity.

The American Journal of Infectious Diseases calls autopsy “an exceptionally efficient method of transmitting tuberculosis from the dead body to those present in the autopsy room.” “The risk for infection does not vary with the distance from the autopsy table. Even an exposure for 10 minutes in the autopsy room can result in transmission of the bacteria,” it says. Explaining the danger posed by TB patients, Milind Ranade, secretary, Sarva Shramik Sangh, an NGO working for Class IV workers, said, “A patient with tuberculosis is more infectious at the mortuary than during life. For months, these morgues keep infected rotten bodies on the floors. All the racks are filled with already abandoned bodies.”

Despite the very real risk that morgue workers face, the workers claimed that they have not been provided with full hand gloves, gears, masks or proper disinfectants to protect them. “The masks we are provided are just one-layered surgical masks that are ineffective. We should be provided with N-95 respirators. This forces us to buy masks with our own money,” said another worker. “Ten per cent formaline solution on the cadaver is an effective way to avoid any kind of viruses. Also, decontaminated materials like Lysol helps in getting protected from infection. But they are not provided with any,” said Syed Mazahri Hussain, a student of Masters in Public Health at Tata Institute of Social Sciences who assists the mortuary workers as part of his project.

“In fact, since their uniforms are not cleaned on a regular basis they can carry the bacteria back to their homes and infect more people. Their uniforms need to be boiled at 100 degrees to be disinfected completely,” said Mr Ranade.

However, police surgeon S.M. Patil refuted all the allegations and said the department provides mortuary staff members with all the necessary facilities. “We do provide everything starting from gloves, masks, jackets that help protecting the workers from getting infected but they don’t wear it,” he said. “Many bodies are unclaimed and abandoned; how would we know if they are TB-infected or not,” he added.

When The Asian Age spoke to workers, they said that they aren’t provided with paid leaves, which forces them to rejoin work while undergoing treatment for TB.

A 27-year-old staff member, who was diagnosed with TB in 2011, was prescribed to take rest during June to September. But five years down the line, he said he has not received his salary of those four months till now.

“Every day, we get around 15 bodies. While cutting them, we just pray to God that they are not TB-infected,” he said.