過去5年間における徳島県下で発見された身元不明死体の身体特徴について : 東南海・南海地震に備えて

There is a high probability of Tounankai-Nankai earthquake in the first half of this century,with tremendous damage including many victims. The personal identification of them seems to be difficult. Then, we investigated the main useful ground to identify the unknown cadavers（259 cases）in Tokushima during the past 5 years, from 2002 to 2006. Ninety percent of them were identified : by the fingerprint ; 35%, the dental chart ; 24%, DNA-typing ; 17%, the feature ; 15%, the feature of body ; 9%, respectively. If houses of many victims are broken on the earthquakes, it is difficult to get ante-mortem material for the fingerprint or DNA-typing. So, records kept in the medical institution and feature of body are very important information. The scars, injuries, the Xray images, and the medical equipment inside the body were useful for the actual identification.To observe and record these findings will be the first step for the personal identification. It is important that we cooperate and make the system to get these medical records and images.Doctors, dentists, and police should combine together against the earthquake.