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Anthrax
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Anthrax is a serious disease caused by anthrax bacteria. Anthrax spores are a form of the bacteria in a hard shell that can occur naturally or be processed as part of a fine, powder-like substance, or in larger clumps. Anthrax is in the news because of the recent cases of disease and deaths caused by the deliberate distribution of anthrax spores through the mail with the intention of harming people. Prior to these recent cases of bioterrorism in the United States, most cases in humans have come from contact with infected animals or contaminated animal products. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the last death from anthrax in the United States before 2001 was in 1976. However, there was a nonfatal case of anthrax reported in 2000 in North Dakota.
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Anthrax is most common in agricultural regions of the world where anthrax in animals occurs, including: South and Central America, Southern and Eastern Europe, Asia, and Africa. Anthrax occasionally occurs in animal herds in the United States as well, but until 2001, cases in humans were rare. Typically, when anthrax affects humans, it usually is from an occupational exposure to infected animals or animal products, such as wool, hides and/or hair. However, those at-risk during the 2001 outbreak included persons who had come into contact with contaminated mail, such as postal, news media, and government employees.
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Anthrax has a long association with human history. The fifth and sixth plagues described in Exodus may have been anthrax in domesticated animals followed by cutaneous anthrax in humans. The disease that Virgil described in his Georgics is clearly anthrax in domestic and wild animals1. And during the 16th to the 18th centuries in Europe, anthrax was an economically important agricultural disease.
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Anthrax was first known to infect animals in the year 17 B.C. when a French farmer noticed his sheep flock suddenly dying. Bacillus Anthracis is a rod-shaped Gram-positive bacterium, about 1 by 9 micrometers in size. It was shown to cause disease by Robert Koch in 1877. [5] The bacterium normally rests in endospore form in the soil, and can survive for decades in this state. Ruminants are often infected whilst grazing, especially when grazing rough, irritant or spiky vegetation: the vegetation causes wounds within the gastrointestinal tract permitting entry of the bacterial endo-spores into the tissues. Once ingested by a ruminant or placed in an open cut, the bacterium begins multiplying inside the animal or human and in a few days to a month kills it. The endo-spores germinate at the site of entry into the tissues and then spread via the circulation to the lymphatics, where the bacteria multiply.
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Anthrax does not easily spread by direct contact between animals. Animals are usually infected by ingestion of the soil-born anthrax spores which then revert to the vegetative form reproducing within the infected animal. Spores can be picked up directly from soil through grazing or from feed grown on infected soil. When periods of drought cause animals to gaze closer to the ground, animals may be more likely to ingest spores. Flooding and working the land are ... associated with an increased incidence of ingestion. Although rare, it is possible for animals to inhale dust harboring anthrax spores.
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Anthrax is seen in three forms in humans: cutaneous, inhalational, and gastrointestinal. Cutaneous anthrax begins as a blister on the skin that, within two to six days, develops into a vesicle which, when ruptured, reveals a depressed ulcer covered by a black eschar, or scab. The patient may have a mild fever and slight edema surrounding the lesion. Within one or two weeks the lesion gradually becomes covered with tissue, eventually resulting in a small scar. Treatment is with appropriate antibiotics and hygienic care of the lesion. The mortality rate without treatment is approximately 5 percent.
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Anthrax