http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010816/hl/anthrax_1.html

Thursday August 16 5:27 PM ET

CDC Reports First Human Anthrax Case Since 1992

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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