The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) released Ebola guidelines for mortuary workers on September 29, 2014. They are the most stringent guidelines I’ve ever seen, easily outpacing HIV and CJD guidelines released by the CDC and World Health Organization (WHO).
    There are good reasons for this. A person can carry HIV or CJD for twenty years before it mutates. The Ebola Virus becomes active in 21 days. It can then kill within days. The Ebola Virus itself will survive for around 24 hours on contaminated surfaces. The limiting factor here is that the Ebola Virus is only active at the end of the disease. By that time, the infected individual is infirmed in a hospital or home. You would never expect to find Ebola contamination at a shopping mall.
    While the CDC issues guidelines, OSHA considers such recommendations as requirements under Article 5 of the General Duty Clause. A funeral home can and probably will be fined for not meeting or putting the guidelines in place. My guess is that it will trigger some infections. I strongly urge all funeral homes to include the guidelines in their 2015 annual training. I would urge that they list the guidelines as a training guideline and have all potentially exposed employees sign off on the training.
    Here is the heart of the guidelines. I am assuming that this is a hospital case and wrapping of the remains has already taken place.

• Do not perform embalming. The risks of occupational exposure to Ebola virus while embalming outweighs its advantages; therefore, bodies infected with Ebola virus should not be embalmed.
• Do not open the body bags.
• Do not remove remains from the body bags. Bagged bodies should be placed directly into a hermetically sealed casket.
• Mortuary care personnel should wear PPE (surgical scrub suit, surgical cap, impervious gown with full sleeve coverage, eye protection (e.g., face shield, goggles), facemask, shoe covers, and double surgical gloves) when handling the bagged remains.
• In the event of leakage of fluids from the body bag, thoroughly clean and decontaminate areas of the environment with EPA-registered disinfectants which can kill a broad range of viruses in accordance with label instructions. Reusable equipment should be cleaned and disinfected according to standard procedures.

    For the link to the full CDC Mortuary Worker Guidelines, visit http://www.cdc.gov/vhf/ebola/hcp/guidance-safe-handling-human-remains-ebola-
patients-us-hospitals-mortuaries.html.