Anthrax

Anthrax is a deadly disease of cattle. It is highly contagious, can be passed to man, and can infect animals in fields from which cattle have been excluded for years.

Anthrax may have been the cause of the biblical fifth plague of Egypt detailed in the Old Testament Book of Exodus; a widespread disease which affected all the Egyptian livestock but none of the Hebrews.

In the 17th century, some 60,000 cattle died in a European pandemic known as the Black Bane, thought to have been anthrax.

In 1876 Robert Koch, who was a country doctor in Wollstein, a small town in eastern Germany, identified the bacterium, which causes anthrax. He became interested in the deadly disease and worked on it in a room in his house, using a microscope given to him by his wife as a 28th birthday present.

Koch's discovery was a remarkable breakthrough as it was the first time it had been proved that infectious diseases are caused by micro-organisms such as bacteria. He developed methods to purify the bacillus from blood samples and grow pure cultures and his first successful treatment was a milkmaid who was dying from anthrax.

The Sverdlovsk anthrax leak, which occurred on April 2, 1979, was a tragic accident that resulted in the release of anthrax spores from a Soviet military microbiology facility near the city of Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg, Russia). This incident caused a significant public health crisis. The exact number of victims remains a topic of debate. Estimates range from 68 to 100 fatalities.

The 2001 anthrax attacks occurred within the United States beginning with five letters containing anthrax spores mailed to various media outlets on September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 attacks. Over the course of several weeks a number of other letters were mailed killing 5 people and infecting 17 others. A reward for information totaling $2.5 million was offered by the FBI, U.S. Postal Service and ADVO, Inc.

Animals acquire anthrax from drinking water draining from contaminated soil, in which the organism may live for years; from eating infected carcasses and feedstuffs; and from the bites of bloodsucking insects. 

For animals the disease, sometimes manifested by staggering, bloody discharge, convulsions, and suffocation, may be fatal almost immediately in acute cases and within three to five days in subacute cases. Death is caused by toxemia. 

Although a rare disease, human anthrax, when it does occur, is most common in Africa and central and southern Asia with a death rate of about 25 percent. 

Globally, at least 2,000 cases of human anthrax occur a year with about two cases a year in the United States. Skin infections represent more than 95% of cases. 

Skin lesion from anthrax

A single gallon of anthrax, if distributed properly, is all it would take to kill everyone on this planet.

Hyenas can consume prey carrying anthrax without contracting the disease itself.

Household bleach is the recommended chemical to decontaminate people exposed to the anthrax virus, by the U.S. F.D.A.

Sources Funk & Wagnells Encyclopedia,  greatfacts.com