Anthrax

Alternative names:

wool sorter's disease

Definition:

Anthrax is an infectious often fatal disease associated with animal contact (mostly farm animals) and which, today, is rarely seen in the United States but still exists in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

Causes, incidence, and risk factors:

Anthrax is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. It is a disease of sheep, cattle, horses, goats, and swine. Human infection, though rare, is an occupational disease of farm workers, veterinarians, and tannery and wool workers.

The disease has a skin form (cutaneous anthrax) and a pulmonary form (inhalation anthrax). In the cutaneous form, the infection is transmitted through a break in the skin. After lesions form and the dead tissue and crusts fall off, infection may spread through the bloodstream and cause shock, cyanosis, sweating, and collapse. The incidence is 1 out of 100,000 people.

In the pulmonary form, infection occurs by breathing in anthrax spores. The resultant pneumonia, rapidly causes respiratory distress followed by death. Meningitis can also develop. The incidence of inhalation anthrax is very rare.

Because anthrax spores remain infectious for many years, the disease can be picked up from old animal products such as sheep skins, wool blankets, and so on. Because the spores are long lasting and the incubation is short and disability is severe, experimentation with anthrax as a biological weapon has been common.