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In September 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two U.S. Senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. Of those infected, 11 developed cutaneous anthrax, while 11 developed inhalation anthrax. 20 of the 22 infected worked at a site where contaminated mail was handled or received. [7]
The 2001 anthrax attacks, also known as Amerithrax (a portmanteau of "America" and "anthrax", from its FBI case name), [1] occurred in the United States over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, one week after the September 11 terrorist attacks.
Two of the sheep died of anthrax poisoning. Others fell sick but recovered. All the surviving sheep were slaughtered after seven days and their bodies buried at the edge of the estuary marshland. The scientists believed that the incoming and outgoing tide had disinfected the land and no warnings were required.
Sverdlovsk anthrax leak at least 68 people died on April 2nd 1979 after anthrax was accidentally released from a Soviet military research base; Elixir sulfanilamide Elixir sulfanilamide caused mass poisoning in the United States in 1937 causing 105 adults and children's death'sList of human-made mass poisoning incidents
Irradiated mail is mail that has been deliberately exposed to radiation, typically in an effort to disinfect it. The most notable instance of mail irradiation in the US occurred in response to the 2001 anthrax attacks; the level of radiation chosen to kill anthrax spores was so high that it often changed the physical appearance of the mail.
Anthrax meningoencephalitis is also nearly always fatal. [72] Gastrointestinal anthrax infections can be treated, but usually result in fatality rates of 25% to 60%, depending upon how soon treatment commences. Injection anthrax is the rarest form of anthrax, and has only been seen to have occurred in a group of heroin injecting drug users. [70]
Anthrax is a disease caused by Bacillus anthracis, a spore-forming, Gram positive, rod-shaped bacterium (Fig. 1).The lethality of the disease is caused by the bacterium's two principal virulence factors: (i) the polyglutamic acid capsule, which is anti-phagocytic, and (ii) the tripartite protein toxin, called anthrax toxin.
Anthrax weaponization is the development and deployment of the bacterium Bacillus anthracis or, more commonly, its spore (referred to as anthrax), as a biological weapon. As a biological weapon, anthrax has been used in biowarfare and bioterrorism since 1914. [ 1 ]