Funeral Services and Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease

Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease: The Public Health Agency of Canada is seeking bids from funeral services companies for transporting the bodies of people suspected of having died from Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, a rare but always fatal affliction that is contagious with certain types of exposure, according to Times Colonist. The number of cadavers to be transported varies but could reach 60 or more per year, the notice says. Services would include returning the post-autopsy remains to a funeral services provider "in keeping with the needs of the deceased person family." Who would have suspected that the federal government is in the mortuary business? Or at least the mortuary transportation business. In its online tender notice, the agency says the successful bidder would be required to collect bodies from hospitals, long-term care facilities and residences throughout Canada and transport them "by ground, air or rail" to pathologists for brain autopsies to test for Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, or CJD. (www.immigrantscanada.com). As reported in the news.