Cause of Death Certification in COVID-19 Deaths.

INTRODUCTION: Appropriate cause of death reporting is vital in the pandemic circumstance for effective planning of the control measures. Accurate reporting and registration of the reason for death are crucial in planning of health programs in turn contributing for the national development. BACKGROUND: All births and deaths occurring across India should be mandatorily registered per the Registration of Births and Deaths Act passed in the year 1969. The act also requires the issuance of cause of death certificate by the doctor attending the departed during his last illness. Data obtained from the cause of death certificate provides cause-specific mortality profile, which is required to analyze the health trends of the population. REVIEW RESULTS: This article discusses the available guidelines on the appropriate documentation of cause of death in the confirmed or suspected coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) infection resulting into death. CONCLUSION: Proper certification of the cause of death leads to better epidemic surveillance. Scrutiny of the clinical sequences from the cause of death certificate is useful to prioritize the allocation of resources for critical care management and to augment our knowledge about underlying causes resulting in mortality from COVID-19. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Dissemination of available guidelines on proper documentation of the cause of death in confirmed/suspected COVID-19 cases will reduce the errors in cause of death reporting. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Veeranna CH, Rani S. Cause of Death Certification in COVID-19 Deaths. Indian J Crit Care Med 2020;24(9):863-867.

A review of the management and safe handling of bodies in cases involving COVID-19.

Wuhan Municipal Health Commission, China, reported a cluster of cases of 'pneumonia of unknown aetiology' in Wuhan, Hubei province in late 2019. The causative organism was eventually identified as a novel coronavirus. Subsequently, the disease spread to more provinces in China, then the rest of the world, and the World Health Organization declared it a pandemic. The virus was named Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease was termed COVID-19 (Coronavirus disease). Since then, an increasing number of people have succumbed to this infectious disease. High contagiousness and rapid spread of the disease has been a matter of concern, as it may overburden healthcare systems. Hence, it is vital to implement strict infection prevention and control measures to curb the spread of the disease. This article reviews the guidelines available for the handling of bodies of deceased persons with suspected or confirmed COVID-19, and for their safe disposal. It also provides a summary of recommendations for conducting autopsies in cases where COVID-19 is suspected.