AIDS sparks burial fee hike

Omar Anderson, Staff Reporter

Some funeral homes are demanding thousands of dollars extra to prepare the corpse of persons who have died from AIDS, but the Government wants them to stop.

While the funeral homes are justifying the additional fees, saying it costs them more to look after "AIDS bodies", and at least one legal expert says these companies are within their rights, the Ministry of Health (MoH) claims that should not be so.

Dr. Yitades Gebre, director of the National HIV/AIDS Prevention Programme in the MoH, told The Sunday Gleaner last week that funeral workers ought not to charge higher prices to deal with any particular corpse, regardless of the cause of death. He added that persons can die of AIDS without the knowledge of funeral workers.

"You don't know the Human Immuno-deficiency Virus (which causes AIDS) status of a person who dies from a car accident, so in that regard you have to exercise universal application," he said, explaining that treating AIDS corpses involves wearing gloves, masks, protective water-proof aprons or gowns, and boots when preparing every corpse. This is for protection against the contraction of any disease.

"You have to be careful handling all bodies, regardless of the cause of death," Dr. Gebre said.

Complaints have been lodged against several funeral homes, including Mizpah Funeral Home in Port Maria, St. Mary and Port Antonio, Portland, which has been charging more for handling the bodies of persons who died from AIDS.

Justifiy claim

But Vincent Mason, managing director of Mizpah Funeral Home, defended the additional costs, claiming the "extra" precautions taken justifies the claim.

"Everything used on an AIDS body is destroyed," Mr. Mason said, adding these include surgical gloves and needles.

He said the cheapest cost for preparing a non-AIDS-infected body is $37,000. He said an extra $3,000 is charged for preparing AIDS bodies.

Mr. Mason also explained that once some families know that an AIDS body is at the morgue, they do not want it to contact with their relative's body because they feel the disease can still contaminate it.

"From a man (body) has AIDS and come in, the people from the community who have other bodies here, come to the morgue and say they don't want their bodies to mix with AIDS bodies," Mr. Mason said.

Checks with L.P. Martin Funeral Home in St. Mary also showed it charged an extra $3,000 for handling AIDS bodies.

"You have certain precautions we have to follow," Manager Patricia Martin said.

Ms. Martin said AIDS bodies are kept in plastic bags, which is not done to other bodies which "are kept in cold storage on a tray." Asked the reason for that practice she said: "You can't contaminate other bodies."

But not all funeral homes tack on extra charges. Winston Romans, managing director of Roman's Funeral Home, told The Sunday Gleaner last week that his company does not charge more for handling AIDS bodies because it follows the "universal application", Dr. Gebre referred to.

"We are a professional company and all precautionary measures are standard, be it AIDS or other illnesses," he said. "Everyone (body) is treated with specialised care."

He said all gloves, disposable gowns and needles are discarded when used on all bodies.

So there's no need to charge additional," Mr. Romans said.

A spokesperson at Madden's Funeral Home in Kingston said the company also does not charge more for preparing AIDS bodies for burial.

In the meantime, the MoH advisory is also urging morgue workers to consider all bodies as potentially infected with HIV and or other blood-borne pathogens, and to adhere rigorously to infection control precautions.

Meanwhile, attorney Dr. Lloyd Barnett Q.C, and chairman of the Independent Jamaica Council for Human Rights (ICJHR), said the administrators of morgues are free to increase the cost of preparing any corpse without infringing on anyone's rights.

Dr. Gebre said there is nothing the MoH can do to force morgue administrators to stop charging more for preparing AIDS bodies.

Recent reports indicated that 549 people have died from AIDS in Jamaica.

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