Abstract
Recent threats of bioterrorism, outbreaks of previously unknown infectious diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and the reemergence of diseases like the Avian Influenza are very real and have caused serious concerns not only for the world-at-large, but also for many authorities. This is an even greater concern for the forensic community as they are generally ill-equipped to deal with highly infectious pathogens due to chronic under funding and administrative constraints. The cost for building a Biosafety Level 4 (BSL-4) facility is exorbitant; such a facility is also very expensive to operate and maintain. Given the state of funding for most Forensic Centers and Medical Examiner Facilities in the world, having a high containment BSL-4 facility just to carry out autopsy work is highly unlikely.
In the course of dealing with the SARS outbreak in Singapore in 2003, the Centre for Forensic Medicine (CFM) of the Health Sciences Authority, together with its strategic partner, Acre Engineering, developed an innovative solution that would meet the requirements set out for a BSL-4 Mobile Autopsy Facility. This was completed at a fraction of the cost and in less than half the time spent building such a facility de novo. This paper therefore sets out to present an innovative solution to meet the need for an autopsy facility equipped to BSL-4 standards that can be mobilized and deployed at short notice to conduct autopsies on highly infectious cases at distant locations. In particular, it addresses the engineering and facilities components of the solution.