Korean J Leg Med.  2022 Aug;46(3):79-84. 10.7580/kjlm.2022.46.3.79.

Fatal Pneumonia Caused by Omicron Subvariant BA.2 of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 with the Pulmonary Tuberculosis

• Heo JH
• Park YI
• Ko YS
• Song HS
• Ham SH
• Kwon H
• Na JY

• KMID: 2533076
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.7580/kjlm.2022.46.3.79

Abstract

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic resulted from severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Variants of SARSCoV-2 have caused distinct COVID-19 surges worldwide. The Omicron variant has replaced other variants as a cause of COVID-19 in the Republic of Korea. Fortunately, COVID-19 patients infected with Omicron have a decreased disease severity. Tuberculosis (TB) remains a major public health threat worldwide, and the incidence of TB is still high in the Republic of Korea. We report the case of a deceased illegal migrant who died at home. An autopsy revealed fatal pneumonia with pulmonary TB caused by the Omicron subvariant BA.2 of SARS-CoV-2. We assumed that a superimposed SARS-CoV-2 infection caused this fatal pneumonia with a previous TB infection. After a comprehensive postmortem (PM) examination, including gross dissection, microscopic studies, PM computed tomography, and PM laboratory tests, the cause of death was determined to be pneumonia, and the death manner was natural. We present this case with a comprehensive PM examination from the perspective of forensic pathology and the public healthcare system.

Keyword

SARS-CoV-2; COVID-19; Tuberculosis; Pneumonia; Autopsy