Quote:
|
Originally Posted by Mon Coeur Noir
I'm sorry to do this here, but I have no other way of getting a hold of you.
I have a question, and perhaps you might be able to help me, due to your particular field of work.
Back when AIDS first came out, (more around the time it was known as GRIDS, early 80's) was there a particular way of embalming, or preparing a body for burial? Or was the idea of AIDS still so new and scary that no one wanted to deal with a body? Was it a more common practice to just cremate the remains?
|
I have been told that when AIDS was first publicized, the funeral community was a bit scared because not much was known about the disease.
I know that funeral services today in the US cannot be denied to a family if someone has a particular disease. Funeral homes were less regulated in the eighties than they are now. I do not know how AIDS cases were handled then but can imagine that cremation might have been encouraged if the person was known to have the disease. Don't take my word for it though.
Now we know that AIDS is very difficult to contract as it cannot live outside the human body. AIDS cases are prepared in the same way as a non-AIDS body would be, using Universal Precautions.
Sorry I don't know more about that subject, we didn't touch on it much in school and it never came up on the job.
Did you have an experience with this?