# What diseases and health problems can people contract from decaying bodies? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 13, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547 "2010-11-13T11:38:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 11:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/1 "2010-11-13T11:38:54Z")
In cases of disaster where you can’t get away from dead bodies, what can be the health consequences? Please specify the vector of the health risk such as direct contact with decaying bodies, inhalation, oral contamination or disease spread by varmints that contacted the bodies. I’ve been reading [The Complete Story of the Galveston Horror](http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/34304) which is about a horrible hurricane disaster. ---
**Author:** ![ExcitedIdiot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/ea5d25/32.png) [@ExcitedIdiot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ExcitedIdiot)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/2 "2010-11-13T12:17:24Z")
I just read in Superfreakonomics about puerperal fever. It was a condition affecting affecting 1 out of 10 mothers while giving birth. Someone studied the numbers and discovered that it didn’t affect women who gave birth with a midwife. Eventually it was tracked down to the doctors. They were going right from the autopsy room to the delivery room. It was attributed to transferring “cadaverous particles” from the dead bodies to the women giving birth. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/3 "2010-11-13T12:21:31Z")
I’m not sure what the connection is, but I’ve always had the impression that cholera is a major concern in a situation like that. ---
**Author:** ![Napier](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ce73a5/32.png) [@Napier](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Napier)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 12:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/4 "2010-11-13T12:30:44Z")
Certainly, when an infectious disease kills a person, the corpse would be contagious for a while. ---
**Author:** ![postcards](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/8e8cbc/32.png) [@postcards](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/postcards)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 2:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/5 "2010-11-13T14:56:19Z")
> [@ExcitedIdiot](#): > > I just read in Superfreakonomics about puerperal fever. It was a condition affecting affecting 1 out of 10 mothers while giving birth. Someone studied the numbers and discovered that it didn’t affect women who gave birth with a midwife. Eventually it was tracked down to the doctors. They were going right from the autopsy room to the delivery room. It was attributed to transferring “cadaverous particles” from the dead bodies to the women giving birth. :dubious: Have you got a cite for this? I find it highly unusual that OB/GYNs would be spending ANY time in an autopsy room, much less going from one directly to a delivery room without scrubbing. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2010, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/6 "2010-11-13T15:08:22Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > :dubious: > > Have you got a cite for this? I find it highly unusual that OB/GYNs would be spending ANY time in an autopsy room, much less going from one directly to a delivery room without scrubbing. [Ignatz Semmelweis](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/eid/vol7no2/cover.htm). I’d be surprised if “OB/GYN” existed as a separate specialization back then. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/7 "2010-11-14T12:43:51Z")
I’ve been checking this regularly. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/8 "2010-11-14T13:12:09Z")
> [@postcards](#): > > :dubious: > > Have you got a cite for this? I find it highly unusual that OB/GYNs would be spending ANY time in an autopsy room, much less going from one directly to a delivery room without scrubbing. Yeah, we’re not talking about last month, you know. Semmelweis figured it out because the midwives who were training in the same hospital didn’t have the privilege of working with cadavers - they had to learn their anatomy with wooden models. And their patients had a lot higher survival rate. Cholera is a problem even if you do get the bodies buried, if you don’t put them away from your water supply. ETA - back then nobody scrubbed at all. That’s what Semmelweis discovered. Scrubbing. ---
**Author:** ![Harmonious\_Discord](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/74df32/32.png) [@Harmonious\_Discord](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harmonious_Discord)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/9 "2010-11-14T14:39:38Z")
My scenario is you’re surrounded by dead unburied bodies and not in a modern hospital anyway. A birth is very likely to occur where the person helping is contaminated, so this is helpful. I am talking about you or me in a large scale disaster. ---
**Author:** ![acetylene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@acetylene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/acetylene)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2010, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-diseases-and-health-problems-can-people-contract-from-decaying-bodies/560547/10 "2010-11-14T15:06:09Z")
Interesting. From the [wiki:](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_risks_from_dead_bodies) > [@](#): > > According to health professionals, the fear of spread of disease by bodies killed by trauma rather than disease is not justified. Among others, Steven Rottman, director of the UCLA Center for Public Health and Disasters, said that no scientific evidence exists that bodies of disaster victims increase the risk of epidemics, adding that cadavers posed less risk of contagion than living people. There are real risks. [QUOTE=wiki] Contamination of water supplies by unburied bodies, burial sites, or temporary storage sites may result in the spread of gastroenteritis from normal intestinal contents [/QUOTE]