All about Anthrax (One Page)

Anthrax

Anthrax is caused by the bacterium called Bacillus anthracis. This bacterium lives in the soil in many regions of the world, although it is rarely found in North America. B. anthracis is commonly found in Asia, Africa, the Caribbean, Central and South America, Eastern and Southern Europe and the Middle East. Humans can contract the disease by contact with B. anthracis. endospores or vegetative cells. The disease cannot be transmitted from human-to-human through contact or coughing, so it is said to not be contagious. There are three common types of anthrax, which are:

1) Cutaneous Anthrax
The most least deadly form of anthrax is a skin infection known as Cutaneous Anthrax. It can be picked up by a dead animal that has the endospores stuck in its hair, skin or on the ground surface. These spores can last for years or even decades unless they are killed with agents that kill bacterial endospores. The endospores enter through cuts in the skin, they then can divide and begin to produce a harmful tissue killing toxin. First signs of this type of Anthrax might be the appearance of a rash on the hand, arm or neck, soon after more symptoms may be fever and aches once the Anthrax has had enough time it will form a bump like a insect bite on your skin, eventually it will turn into a black dot on the top of this bite. This type of Anthrax does require antibiotic to clear and without taking any antibiotics you have a twenty percent chance of death.

2) Gastrointestinal Anthrax
This form of the disease can be caused by eating improperly cooked contaminated meat. It can also be caused by drinking water contaminated with endospores of the organism. This type of the disease effects your intestinal area. Symptoms may include fever, vomiting of blood, diarrhea and severe stomach and intestinal cramps. Antibiotics have been proven affective against this type of the disease but only if you start taking them quickly (within days after the infection). However twenty-to-sixty percent with this type of disease may die.

3) Inhalation Anthrax
This is the most deadly type of the disease, it affects the lower respiratory system (lungs). To get this type of the disease it has been estimated that you must inhale 2,500 to 10,000 endospores in the lower part of the lungs for an infection to establish. The endospores must also be 1 micrometer and 5 micrometers in diameter, if it is larger the cilia will trap and sweep the particle up and out of the lungs. Once inhaled over a short period of time the disease kills ninety percent of its victims. There have been 18 cases of this type of disease in north America over the past 100 years, this was before terrorists used it on the USA.

It is important to remember that any type of this disease is not contagious. There is a vaccine for humans, it has been proven relativily effective but has been hard to prove due to the locations of where the disease takes place.