http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010816/hl/anthrax_1.html
Thursday August 16 5:27 PM ET
By Emma Hitt, PhD
ATLANTA (Reuters Health) - A North Dakota man who handled anthrax-infected
livestock during an outbreak last year has become the first human case of the
illness in the US in nearly a decade, the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention (news
- web
sites) (CDC) in Atlanta reported Thursday.
Anthrax is a rare but potentially fatal bacterial infection. It typically
occurs in cattle, sheep and some other animals, but the bacteria can spread to
humans through contact with infected animals.
Anthrax may attack the lungs through inhalation of anthrax spores, but far
more often it is contracted through abrasions on the skin. This is known as
cutaneous anthrax, and cases typically begin as a raised bump at the site of
infection that quickly develops into more extensive skin lesions.
In the US, most cases of anthrax have been cutaneous. Eighteen cases of inhalational
anthrax have been reported, most recently in 1976.
Until this latest case, the last reported case of cutaneous anthrax in the
US occurred in 1992. The 67-year-old North Dakota man is the only person known
to have been infected during a livestock outbreak in the state last year.
During the outbreak, 32 farms in North Dakota were quarantined, compared
with an average of only two farms per year during the preceding 40 years.
Four days before his symptoms appeared, the infected man had helped dispose
of five cows that had died of anthrax. He wore leather gloves, but the CDC
researchers speculate that the man may have transferred infective anthrax
spores that were on his gloves to broken skin on his face.
``(The man) noticed a small bump on his left check at the angle of his
jaw,'' CDC researchers write in the August 17th issue of the agency's Morbidity
and Mortality Weekly Report.
Two days later the lesion had enlarged to about the size of a quarter and
was surrounded by a purple ring, the report indicates. After being prescribed
antibiotics, the man's condition slowly improved.
``In general, people should minimize the handling of animals that have died
of anthrax. If possible, the animal should be burned where it lies,'' the CDC's
Dr. David Ashford told Reuters Health.
``Anyone that does handle an animal that has died of anthrax should be on
the look-out for any unusual sores on the skin surfaces that were exposed to
the carcass,'' he added.
However, Ashford stressed that for most people the odds of contracting
anthrax are quite low.
``There is no great risk for the public or community in general,'' he said.
``The risk for those handling these animals is for cutaneous anthrax
exclusively, (and it) is a treatable disease with low mortality.''
SOURCE: Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report 2001;50:677-680.
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