Post-Mortem Investigation Through Virtual Autopsy Techniques: Proposal of a New Diagnostic Approach to Reduce the Risks of Operators During Emergencies

Natural outbreaks of biological agents, causing local and global emergencies, have impacted human safety, social/political/economical activities, and the security of critical infrastructures. Lessons learned by previous emergencies have been used by decision-makers not only to improve the phases of prevention, intervention, and recovery of normality but also to facilitate the dual-use of methods, instruments, and technologies. A crucial phase of emergency management is the investigation that in the past was based on questioning, suspicions, witnesses, and often unreliable evidence. Nowadays investigation is supported by technology and various types of forensics that are deeply involved. The authors in this paper consider the pandemic outbreak of SARS-COV-2 as a case study and propose virtual autopsy by postmortem CT (PMCT) as a technique to facilitate post-mortem examinations on ascertained or suspected SARS-COV-2 cases. This method reduces the risk of infection for the operators that have to conduct the particular investigations during the emergencies.