Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Anthrax is spread by contact with the bacterium's spores, which often appear in infectious animal products. [10] Contact is by breathing or eating or through an area of broken skin. [10] It does not typically spread directly between people. [10] Risk factors include people who work with animals or animal products, and military personnel. [3]
The symptoms in anthrax depend on the type of infection and can take anywhere from 1 day to more than 2 months to appear. All types of anthrax have the potential, if untreated, to spread throughout the body and cause severe illness and even death. [24] Four forms of human anthrax disease are recognized based on their portal of entry.
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 bacteria may live in the soil for decades, and result in outbreaks which usually occur after periods of drought followed by heavy rainfall. Anthrax can be transmitted between livestock ...
The powdered anthrax was able to disperse into the air without being detected and eventually inhaled. [1] [3] 43 people tested positive to anthrax exposure and 22 cases of anthrax illness were diagnosed, where 11 were inhalation anthrax and 11 were cutaneous anthrax. Five people from this group died.
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.
Despite the World War I-era interest in ricin, as World War II erupted, the United States Army still maintained the position that biological weapons were, for the most part, impractical. [2] Other nations, notably France, Japan and the United Kingdom, thought otherwise and had begun their own biological weapons programs. [ 2 ]
Anthrax anthrax is a species of fly in the family Bombyliidae. Unlike, for example, Bombylius major, this species does not mimic a bee. The eggs are flicked by the adult female toward the entrance of the nests of mason bees. After hatching, the larvae find their way into the nests to feed on the bee larva.