Gujarat medical school to carry out autopsies of COVID-19 victims to study effects on body

A Gujarat medical college will conduct a post-mortem on those who died of COVID-19 in an attempt to study the infection's toll on the human body which leads to the patient's demise. 

Pandit Dindayal Upadhyay Medical College in Rajkot has been selected to carry out this research. As per reports, the pathological autopsies on bodies of Coronavirus victims have already been done at All India Institute of Medical Science (AIIMS), Bhopal.

An official release from the Gujarat government said the forensic medicine department of the college has initiated a research project to study the physiological and biological changes the COVID-19 infection causes in a human body. For this, a research team, led by Professor Hetal Kyada, the head of the forensic medicine department and additional superintendent of dedicated COVID-19 hospital set up on the campus, will perform autopsies on some who died.

“The objective of any post-mortem is to know the cause of death. So, the study will focus on the mechanisms that this viral infection triggers and causes death. It can be the clotting of the blood, inflammation, or any other condition. If we come to know the causes of death, then we can find out ways to prevent it,” Professor Gaurav Dhruv, dean of PDU medical college, said.

According to reports, Rajkot Medical College will be the first in the state to perform such autopsies on COVID-19 victims. However, this will require the consent of the family of the deceased patients and that the identities of such patients will not be revealed.

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Gujarat coronavirus outbreak

Gujarat on Sunday reported the highest single-day spike of 1,335 new COVID-19 cases, taking the total count of infections in the state to 1,04,341, the health department said. The cumulative death toll went up to 3,108 with 14 people succumbing to the infection, including five in Surat, it said. A total of 1,212 patients were discharged in the day, taking the number of recoveries to 84,758, the department said in a release.

With this, the state's recovery rate now stands at 81%. A total of 72,561 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, which comes at the rate of 1,116.32 tests per day per million population.

(AP photo for representation)

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