Anthrax
Uploaded by splinterc3ll on Mar 23, 2007
When you think of anthrax, you think of terrorists. However, terrorists are not the main cause of anthrax. Anthrax occurs in some animals like cattle, sheep, and goats. It is also soil borne. Anthrax is more common in places without veterinarian programs. Anthrax’s scientific name is bacillus anthracis. There are 89 strains of anthrax. One of the strains used in the 2001 anthrax attack on the nation is Ames strain. The Ames strain is extremely dangerous. It is the most dangerous type.
The Vollum strain used in the US and UK’s programs and in the bioweapon trials. A scientist named William A. Boyles was accidentally infected with the Vollum strain, which he died from in 1951. The Sterne strain, used as an anthrax vaccine, and is named after a South African researcher.
Anthrax has rod-shaped spores that are 1 by 9 micrometers in size. Anthrax was never known to cause disease until 1877, when Robert Koch discovered that it does. Anthrax spores usually rests in the soil resting for decades. Once an animal digests it, the bacterium grows and eventually kills the animal.
The anthrax toxin has two factors: edema and lethal factor. The edema factor inactivates white blood cells so they cannot produce bacteria. The lethal factor targets the blood vessel cells. Both factors are very deadly.
The most common way for people to be exposed to anthrax is infected animals or their products. Workers who are close to dead animals are at a high risk. In July 2006, an artist who made drums from cattle skins died of anthrax in the United Kingdom.
Many people believe that anthrax can only enter the human body by inhalation. Anthrax can enter many ways such as intestines, lungs, or skin. Anthrax is not contagious, so it cannot spread from one person to the next. Many people mistake respiratory anthrax for a cold. They do this because some of its symptoms are cold or flu-like symptoms. After several days of infection, there is respiratory collapse.
With intestinal infection, the symptoms are vomiting of blood, diarrhea, and loss of appetite. Untreated, the infection is 99.9% fatal. Infection through the skin causes formation of a black scar, which is painless. Skin infection is rarely fatal, but without treatment, 20% of all cases turn out fatal.
The treatment of anthrax is large doses of antibiotics. The treatment usually does not work unless started in a...