0000000000652332
AUTHOR
Ventura Spagnolo E.
COVID-19 in Italy. Clinical emergency and bioethical perspectives
Italy is the European country with the second highest number of novel Coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) deaths. Several factors interfered with the spread of this phenomenon, both clinical, political, and bioethical. In this scenario, where the need for care goes far beyond the capacity of a health system able to cope with it, what should be the criteria for an equitable distribution of the available resources? The mass quarantine required physical distancing in order to limit the spread of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection, and contextually created additional problems for the organization Italian National Health Service. The delicate ethical questions p…
Forensic Microbiology: A Case Series Analysis
The importance of microbial colonization of human organs in a living body has long been assessed. What still remains unclear are the microbial changes occurring after death, thus leading to the advent of a relatively novel field of research called “Postmortem microbiology”. It is applied to several forensic fields such as post-mortem interval assessment and cause of death determination. In this contest, a major limit is thus represented by the correct interpretation of the microbial data and by the actual lack of standard procedures. Here we propose a standard operative protocol in order to avoid false positives given by contamination (the main problem), post-mortem translocation and agonal…