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Singapore-AIDS: Singapore's 24-hour rule on AIDS patients to remain

Agence France-Presse - December 9, 1999

SINGAPORE, Dec 9 (AFP) - The Singapore government has rejected a request to abolish the requirement that AIDS patients in the city-state be buried or cremated within 24 hours of death.

The Action for Aids group had called on the government to do away with the rule saying it was outdated, having been drawn up in the 1980s when little was known about the effect of AIDS after death, the Straits Times said Thursday.

But the health ministry said the requirement would remain to minimize embalmers' risk of exposure to the virus.

"The virus can remain infectious in body fluids and tissues after death. Without embalming, a dead body will decompose rapidly after one day because of the hot weather.

"Decomposition accentuates the risk of exposure and transmission as body fluids will exude from the body. This is the basis for the requirement of cremation or burial within 24 hours," the ministry said.

The World Health Organization has done away with the rule of burial and cremation of AIDS patients within 24 hours, as long as the bodies are properly handled by trained embalmers, the report said.

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