The University Teaching Hospital (UTH) is stuck with 46 unclaimed bodies and has called on members of public with missing.

relatives to visit the facility and search among the dead. UTH mortuary deputy superintendent Brian Chanda said in an interview that people should visit the mortuary at the health facility and check if their missing relatives are among the unclaimed bodies, to give them a dignified burial.

He said the 46 bodies have been in the mortuary for over four months and that most of them are under the `brought-in-dead’ cases. He said others are those abandoned in the hospital wards by their relatives while others were picked by the police from different townships within Lusaka. “We have submitted the list of unclaimed bodies to Lusaka City Council which is mandated to dispose of them,” Mr Chanda said. Mr Chanda said the hospital will wait for 14 days to lapse, as stipulated by Public Health, before allowing the State to dispose of the bodies. In April this year, the local authority buried 40 unclaimed.

bodies that were at the health facility. The unclaimed bodies caused unpleasant mortuary stench which is contrary to the Laws of Zambia. According to the Laws of Zambia, a 14-day notice is given to members of the public to claim the bodies before they can be buried.