The first recorded use of the word "anthrax" in English is in a 1398 translation of Bartholomaeus Anglicus work De proprietatibus rerum (On the Properties of Things, 1240).Anthrax was historically known by a wide variety of names indicating its symptoms, location and groups considered most vulnerable to infection. They included Siberian plague, Cumberland disease, charbon, splenic fever, malignant edema, woolsorters disease and la maladie de Bradford. Signs and symptoms
Skin
Cutaneous anthrax, also known as hide-porters disease, is when anthrax occurs on the skin. It is the most common form (>90% of anthrax cases). It is the least dangerous form (low mortality with treatment, 23.7% mortality without). Cutaneous anthrax presents as a boil-like skin lesion that eventually forms an ulcer with a black center (eschar). The black eschar often shows up as a large, painless, necrotic ulcer (beginning as an irritating and itchy skin lesion or blister that is dark and usually concentrated as a black dot, somewhat resembling bread mold) at the site of infection. In general, cutaneous infections form within the site of spore penetration between two and five days after exposure. Unlike bruises or most other lesions, cutaneous anthrax infections normally do not cause pain. Nearby lymph nodes may become infected, reddened, swollen, and painful. A scab forms over the lesion soon, and falls off in a few weeks. Complete recovery may take longer. Cutaneous anthrax is typically caused when B. anthracis spores enter through cuts on the skin. This form is found most commonly when humans handle infected animals and/or animal products.
Without treatment, about 20% of cutaneous skin infection cases progress to toxemia and death.Before 2001, fatality rates for inhalation anthrax were 90%; since then, they have fallen to 45%. People that progress to the fulminant phase of inhalational anthrax nearly always die, with one case study showing a death rate of 97%. Anthrax meningoencephalitis is also nearly always fatal.GI infections can be treated, but usually result in fatality rates of 25% to 60%, depending upon how soon treatment commences. This form of anthrax is the rarest. Epidemiology
Globally, at least 2,000 cases occur a year. United States
The last fatal case of natural inhalational anthrax in the United States occurred in California in 1976, when a home weaver died after working with infected wool imported from Pakistan. To minimize the chance of spreading the disease, the body was transported to UCLA in a sealed plastic body bag within a sealed metal container for autopsy.Gastrointestinal anthrax is exceedingly rare in the United States, with only two cases on record. The first case was reported in 1942, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. During December 2009, the New Hampshire Department of Health and Human Services confirmed a case of gastrointestinal anthrax in an adult female. In 2007 two cases of cutaneous anthrax were reported in Danbury, Connecticut. The case involved the maker of traditional African-style drums who was working with a goat hide purchased from a dealer in New York City which had been previously cleared by Customs.