Tuberculosis (TB) is a highly infectious disease on the rise caused by the organism
Mycobacterium tuberculosis and health care workers working in emergency departments,
medical wards and autopsy rooms are in danger of contacting this disease. We present a case
of a 42 year old man found dead under a pedestrian bridge with no medical history available.
Post mortem computed tomography showed multiple cavities involving upper lobes of both
lungs and areas of consolidation in both lung fields raising the suspicion of pulmonary
tuberculosis. This was followed by a computed tomography guided lung biopsy and a limited
conventional autopsy done in situ in a special high risk autopsy suite with appropriate
ventilation. This case highlights the importance of cross sectional imaging which can be
coupled with image guided biopsy in cases of infectious disease to reduce the risk of
transmission to health care workers.