Lukewarm response to undertaker AIDS idea

A proposal by the United Funeral Association of South Africa (UFASA) that the HIV status of people be recorded on death certificates has met with a lukewarm reaction. UFASA founding member Johan Rousseau said earlier this week that at least 30,000 industry workers were placed at risk of infection when they handled cadavers infected with HIV/AIDS. However, local undertakers and medical staff said Rousseau's suggestion was highly "extraordinary and unnecessary", and noted that as human cells in corpses start to die, so too did the HI virus. Ashraf Grimwood, told the South African Press Association it was "silly to become hysterical about HIV/AIDS" because any disease of the blood could technically be transmitted to undertakers.