Anthrax

Anthrax – Rare, Serious Illness

Anthrax, a rare though serious illness is caused by a spore forming bacterium – Bacillus anthracis, a germ which breeds in soil. It tends to affect livestock and humans can get infected through direct or indirect contact with sick animals. There is no evidence of anthrax being transmitted from person to person but there could be a possibility of anthrax skin lesion which would be contagious through direct contact.

The anthrax bacteria usually enters the body through a wound in the skin or could get infected on eating contaminated meat or inhaling the spores. The symptoms and signs are based on how one is infected and could range from skin sores to vomiting to shock. Timely treatment with the use of antibiotics could be of great help in most anthrax infections.

 Inhaled anthrax seems to be very difficult to treat and could also be fatal. Anthrax could cause three forms of disease in humans namely, cutaneous that affects the skin and people having cuts or open wounds could get infected if they touch the bacteria, inhalation is when it affects the lungs on breathing in spores of the bacteria and gastrointestinal is when the digestive system tends to get affected on eating infected meat.

Types of Anthrax

Cutaneous Anthrax – infection enters the body through cuts or wounds on the skin and is the most common form of route. It is also the mildest and is seldom fatal. Symptoms and signs may include: raised itchy bump which resembles an insect bite that develops quickly into a painless sore having a black centre. There is also swelling in the sore as well and nearby lymph glands.

Inhalation Anthrax - develops when one breathes in anthrax spores and is the most severe way to get infected where the disease and treatment could also be fatal. The initial symptoms and signs may include: shortness of breath, nausea, coughing up blood, difficulty in swallowing, mild chest discomfort and flu like symptoms like sore throat, with mild fever, fatigue as well as muscles aches that could last for some hours or days. One may also experience more symptoms as the disease progresses which may include – shock, breathing problem, high fever and meningitis, which is a potentially life threatening inflammation of the spinal cord and the brain.

Gastrointestinal Anthrax – is another form of infection which starts on eating undercooked meat from an infected animal and symptoms may include: abdominal pain, vomiting, nausea, headache, and loss of appetite, with fever, severe bloody diarrhoea at the later stage of the infection, swollen neck and sore throat with problem in swallowing.

Treatment

If the ailment is diagnosed early, antibiotic could cure this condition but very often most of the people are not aware of this condition till it is too late to treat. Vaccine is available to cure anthrax in military and others who could be at risk of getting infected with this disease.

Effective decontamination of people can be done by thoroughly washing down with antimicrobial soap and water and the waste water should be treated with bleach or any other antimicrobial agent. Moreover, effective decontamination of the used articles could be done by boiling them in water for about half an hour or longer.

Formaldehyde is effective in destroying spores and vegetative cells on surfaces as well as burning clothing.