May 1999
The Director - Features
Handle With Care
Funeral service professionals should exercise extreme caution when handling victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease
Throughout the history of modern embalming, funeral service practitioners have faced numerous infectious diseases that, when handled properly and exposed to formaldehyde and disinfecting chemicals, were rendered harmless. Research indicates, however, the infectious Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (CJD) is resistant to the chemical and physical agents normally used for sterilization and decontamination in funeral homes. It can remain infectious for long periods in a dried state and challenges the routine decontamination measures practiced by embalmers today.
Handle With Care—Funeral service professionals should exercise extreme caution when handling victims of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, written by Kurt L. Soffe, CFSP, discusses the concerns funeral service professionals should have regarding CJD. It explains how Soffe's funeral home handled a CJD case and includes a sidebar on how to get more information on CJD.
Soffe, a fourth-generation funeral director with Jenkins-Soffe Mortuary, Murray, UT, is president of the Utah FDA and a member of the NFDA Policy Board, the NFDA Communications Committee for Public Relations and NFDA's Special Interest Section Council for Technical Operations and Compliance.
