Paula and I attended the Reed Gift Fair in Melbourne last week. While we were there, there was a story on the news about a man, with a large unattractive sore on his arm. This was the result of him working in an abattoir and coming in contact with anthrax infected cattle.
So what is Anthrax?
It is an acute infectious disease caused by the spore-forming bacterium Bacillus anthracis. And although Anthrax most commonly occurs in cattle, sheep, goats and other herbivores,it can also affect humans who are exposed to infected animals or tissue from infected animals. The infection is usually caught from handling and inhaling spores from infected animal products or eating undercooked meat from infected animals.
The tv footage also included a farmer who had to dispose of the days supply of infected milk after his cows started dying. It made me wonder how much possibly infected milk had been distributed to the local market before the cows started dying, but when they were already sick.
The last outbreak of Anthrax in Victoria was 10 years ago and it is the dry conditions that apparently contribute towards this disease occurring as the cattle have to go deeper into the soil to feed, as the spores live in the soil.
The symptoms of disease vary depending on how the disease was contracted, but symptoms usually appear within 7 days.
The majority of anthrax infections occur when the bacterium enters a cut or abrasion on the skin. So people who handle contaminated wool, hides, leather or hair products (especially goat hair) of infected animals are particularly at risk.
A skin infection starts of looking like a raised itchy bump similar to an insect bite. Within a couple of days this develops into a vesicle and then becomes a painless ulcer, usually 1-3 cm in diameter. The ulcer has a characteristic black necrotic (dying) area in the center. There is often a swelling of the lymph glands in the adjacent area. The good news is that only about 20% of untreated cases of cutaneous anthrax will result in death. The death rate is rare if the proper antimicrobial therapy is provided.
Where the spores have been inhaled, the initial symptoms may resemble a common cold. which, after several days, may progress to severe breathing problems and shock. Where the anthrax infection has been contracted by inhalation the result is usually fatal.
The intestinal disease from anthrax may follow the consumption of contaminated meat. Signs are characterized by an acute inflammation of the intestinal tract. Initially the patient suffers from nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, fever which is followed by abdominal pain, vomiting of blood, and severe diarrhea. Infection from intestinal anthrax results in death in 25% to 60% of cases.
Depending on how the disease is contracted, the symptoms generally show up within 7 days with varying symptoms.