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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.
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 fine powder anthrax sent to Daschle and Leahy mostly caused the more dangerous form of infection known as inhalational anthrax (8 out of 10 cases). Postal worker Patrick O'Donnell and accountant Linda Burch contracted cutaneous anthrax from the Senate letters.
Anthrax vaccine adsorbed is classified as a subunit vaccine that is cell-free and containing no whole or live anthrax bacteria. [7] The antigen (immunologically active) portions are produced from culture filtrates of a toxigenic, but avirulent, nonencapsulated mutant — known as V770-NP1-R — of the B. anthracis Vollum strain. [8]
The leakage of anthrax hit the ceramics factory, south of Compound 19, the hardest. The factory, which employed 2,180 personnel, was in possession of a ventilation system which sucked air from the outside, directing some to the furnaces with the remainder being directed to the workforce. In the coming weeks at least 18 workers at the factory died.
Anthrax vaccines are used for both livestock and human immunization. One of the most used anthrax vaccines today is based on the Sterne strain, in the form of a live-spore vaccine for animals. A vaccine with live spores is dangerous for humans, so vaccines based on the secreted toxin protein, protective antigen (PA), have been explored.