A Prospective Study of HIV Positive Autopsies Conducted At Bapuji Hospital and Research Center, Davangere

During the 5-year-period from January 2008 to December 2012, 6 antibody HIV positive cases were autopsied at the Department of Forensic Medicine & Toxicology in J. J. M. Medical College, Davangere. The purposes of this study were to report the autopsy findings of anti-HIV positive individuals, and to identify the prevalence of specific factors such as gender, age, postmortem findings, cause and manner of death. The 61 anti-HIV positive individuals who died at Bapuji Hospital and research centre, Davangere consisted of 35 males and 26 females. Here, 55 cases died from natural cause, 6 cases due to unnatural causes termed as medico legal death, which included 2 cases of accidents and 4 cases of suicide. All Medico legal cases underwent full autopsy with universal precautions. The prevalence of anti-HIV positive underlined the importance of awareness of HIV transmission in forensic casework. In conclusion, full autopsies should be performed regularly on HIV infected patients with due protective measures not only for medical research, but also for forensic study.