>>>沪江汶川地震专题

【尸体与疾病】

灾难导致的大量死亡往往会加重人们对于疾病暴发的忧虑（2），然而事实上，目前并没有证据说明大量尸体会导致灾后传染病爆发（3）。当死亡由自然灾害本身造成时，对于幸存者，并不存在引起传染病爆发的风险（4）。对于某些需要特别预防的情况，如霍乱（5）或出血热，才会存在尸体引起传染病爆发的风险。

尸体的处理原则请参阅附表一。

不管事实如何，灾后疫情爆发的可能性经常被卫生部门和媒体夸大。尽管科学家试图澄清这些缺乏根据的误区，但‘即将来临的疫情威胁’总是媒体灾区报道中反复出现的主题。

Dead Bodies and Disease
The sudden presence of large numbers of dead bodies in the disaster-affected area may heighten concerns of disease outbreaks (2), despite the absence of evidence that dead bodies pose a risk for epidemics after natural disasters (3). When death is directly due to the natural disaster, human remains do not pose a risk for outbreaks (4). Dead bodies only pose health risks in a few situations that require specific precautions, such as deaths from cholera (5) or hemorrhagic fevers (6). Recommendations for management of dead bodies are summarized in the Table.

Despite these facts, the risk for outbreaks after disasters is frequently exaggerated by both health officials and the media. Imminent threats of epidemics remain a recurring theme of media reports from areas recently affected by disasters, despite attempts to dispel these myths (2,3,7).