ArticleSouth African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care2025
The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on forensic pathology services in Limpopo province, South Africa.
Article in South African family practice : official journal of the South African Academy of Family Practice/Primary Care, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Not yet cited in PubMed.
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Abstract
backgroundTo evaluate the effects of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the preventative measures taken, especially how they affect forensic pathology services in rural South Africa.
methodsThis retrospective analysis includes referred post-mortem cases from all forensic pathology services in Limpopo province, comparing the period before the COVID-19 pandemic (01 January 2019 to 31 December 2019) with the pandemic period (01 January 2020 to 31 December 2020). Data analysis was performed using STATA 16.0 software (StataCorp; College Station, TX). Chi-square test was employed for comparison, with a p-value 0.05 deemed statistically significant.
resultsApproximately 9319 cases were submitted for post-mortem examinations, with 4857 occurring before the pandemic and 4462 during it, marking an 8.1% decrease. There was a decrease in the number of unnatural death cases, while the instances of natural deaths rose. Cases under investigation saw a notable increase. There was a marked decrease in referrals for forensic examinations across all districts. In addition, except for one facility, there was a decline in the number of cases sent for autopsies at all facilities.
conclusionIn conclusion, forensic pathology services in this province had been severely disrupted by the COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown that followed, especially in the tertiary hospital. It has led to new challenges for case management and necessitated changes to operating procedures.Contribution: It has required modifications to operational procedures and has introduced various challenges in case management.
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