Home Funerals Are Safe
Are dead bodies dangerous? The answer is, almost always, no. The dead person is no more dangerous or contiguous then they were when they were alive. Those caring for the body should use the same standard precautions they would when caring for the person when they were alive. Gloves can be used to protect from bloodborne pathogens or contact with bodily fluids.
Standard Precautions: Treating all blood/fluid interactions as if they could be infectious to protect against infection. This includes a focus on hand hygiene and the use of skin barriers (like gloves). Universal precautions apply to only blood, while standard precautions apply to all body fluids, including blood.
Sometimes people worry that they can contract diseases from a dead body when the person died of an infectious disease. Most of the time, you cannot contract a disease from a dead body but there are a few exceptions. Here is a list of diseases that you CAN catch from a dead body without proper handling of infectious agents:
Most of these diseases pose a risk to the person caring for the body by contact with blood or body fluids. Often, the bacteria or viruses that cause these diseases do not survive long after death.
So what does this mean for you?
For most people doing home-based or community deathcare, chances are that if the deceased person was hospitalized for any of the above diseases, most of which are rare in the United States, the hospital will let you know that it is unsafe to do a home funeral. People who suffered from infections such as MRSA at the end of life are not automatically a threat to a caregiver's health just because they have stopped breathing. Standard precautions such as masks and gloves that may have been used while the person was alive, may also be used after death to reduce exposure risks.
Here are some resources to help you understand this topic:
Standard Precautions: Treating all blood/fluid interactions as if they could be infectious to protect against infection. This includes a focus on hand hygiene and the use of skin barriers (like gloves). Universal precautions apply to only blood, while standard precautions apply to all body fluids, including blood.
Sometimes people worry that they can contract diseases from a dead body when the person died of an infectious disease. Most of the time, you cannot contract a disease from a dead body but there are a few exceptions. Here is a list of diseases that you CAN catch from a dead body without proper handling of infectious agents:
- tuberculosis
- Covid-19
- group A streptococcal infection
- Gastroenteritis (including clostridioides difficile)
- transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (such as Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease)
- hepatitis B and C
- Ebola
- HIV
- and possibly meningitis and septicemia (especially meningococcal)
Most of these diseases pose a risk to the person caring for the body by contact with blood or body fluids. Often, the bacteria or viruses that cause these diseases do not survive long after death.
So what does this mean for you?
For most people doing home-based or community deathcare, chances are that if the deceased person was hospitalized for any of the above diseases, most of which are rare in the United States, the hospital will let you know that it is unsafe to do a home funeral. People who suffered from infections such as MRSA at the end of life are not automatically a threat to a caregiver's health just because they have stopped breathing. Standard precautions such as masks and gloves that may have been used while the person was alive, may also be used after death to reduce exposure risks.
Here are some resources to help you understand this topic:
- Watch this slightly tongue-in-cheek video answering the question, “Are Dead Bodies Dangerous?” by Caitlin Doughty, of Ask a Mortician.
- Dead bodies and disease: the danger that doesn't exist from the Funeral Consumer Alliance about the myth of contagion from dead bodies.
- “Stiff,” a book by Mary Roach
Public Health & Safety
WHAT EXPERTS SAY ABOUT SAFETY OF DEAD BODIES
from The Science Behind Green Burial by Lee Webster et al, Green Burial Council Resources
Here’s what some experts say about the risk of infection from dead bodies:
Old beliefs that feed our unfounded fears include miasma theory, the precursor to germ theory, that supported the notion that foul air, dark and wet, spread diseases, so dead bodies must be adding to the waft of bad air; the erroneous belief that all bodies are imbued with infectious properties as soon as they cease to breathe; and the confusion between live infectious organisms and their conduits as opposed to normal decomposition processes.
from The Science Behind Green Burial by Lee Webster et al, Green Burial Council Resources
Here’s what some experts say about the risk of infection from dead bodies:
- “…concern that dead bodies are infectious can be considered a 'natural' reaction by persons wanting to protect themselves from disease" although "the risk that bodies (that died in a natural disaster) pose for the public is extremely small."
Pan American Health Organization - “Transmission of infection requires the presence of an infectious agent, exposure to that agent, and a susceptible host... The human body is host to many organisms, only some of which are pathogenic. When the body dies, the environment in which pathogens live can no longer sustain them. Microorganisms involved in the decay process (putrefaction) are not pathogenic...”
Pan American Health Organization - “Historically, epidemics resulting in mass casualties have only occurred from a few diseases, including plague, cholera, typhoid, tuberculosis, anthrax, and smallpox…such infections are no more likely to be present in disaster victims than in the general population. Furthermore, although some of these diseases are highly contagious, their causative agents are unable to survive long in the human body following death... It is therefore unlikely that such epidemics will result from contact with a cadaver. Indeed, survivors present a much more important reservoir for disease…”
World Health Organization - “Dead or decayed human bodies do not generally create a serious health hazard, unless they are polluting sources of drinking water with fecal matter, or are infected with plague or typhus, in which case they may be infested with the fleas or lice that spread these diseases. In most smaller or less acute emergency situations therefore, families may carry out all the necessary activities following a death...”
World Health Organization, regarding mass burials in emergencies
A note on the above quote: It's important to understand why this is, as it leads to a lot of the confusion about bodies contaminating soil. Water does not decompose anything, it dissolve things. So when we flush medication or place a body in water, the organic material persists and stays in the water. Anything that remains infectious in those circumstances can then be transmitted. Soil is a living organism and can decompose organic matter; anything that remains infectious in a dead body will be deprived of its nutrient source as it decomposes. - “…the mere presence of a dead body without regard to its embalmed status and one that is not leaking blood from an open wound or perforation, does not pose an increased [health] risk of infectious disease transmission for the person who might handle that body or review it in a private setting. Once a human dies, infectious agents that would be of any concern, including those on the individual’s skin or internal organs, is greatly diminished…there simply is no measurable risk of that body transmitting an infectious disease agent…”
Dr. Michael Osterholm, Center for Infectious Disease Research
Old beliefs that feed our unfounded fears include miasma theory, the precursor to germ theory, that supported the notion that foul air, dark and wet, spread diseases, so dead bodies must be adding to the waft of bad air; the erroneous belief that all bodies are imbued with infectious properties as soon as they cease to breathe; and the confusion between live infectious organisms and their conduits as opposed to normal decomposition processes.
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