While the hide was being scraped, a spider bite led to the spores entering the bloodstream. His son also became infected.The CDC investigated the source of the December 2009 infection and the possibility that it was contracted from an African drum recently used by the woman taking part in a drum circle. The woman apparently inhaled anthrax, in spore form, from the hide of the drum. She became critically ill, but with gastrointestinal anthrax rather than inhaled anthrax, which made her unique in American medical history. The building where the infection took place was cleaned and reopened to the public and the woman recovered. The New Hampshire state epidemiologist, Jodie Dionne-Odom, stated "It is a mystery. We really dont know why it happened." Croatia
In July 2022, dozens of cattle in a nature park in Lonjsko Polje, a flood plain by the Sava river, died of anthrax and 6 people have been hospitalized with light, skin-related symptoms. United Kingdom
In November 2008, a drum maker in the United Kingdom who worked with untreated animal skins died from anthrax. In December 2009, an outbreak of anthrax occurred among heroin addicts in the Glasgow and Stirling areas of Scotland, resulting in 14 deaths. The source of the anthrax is believed to have been dilution of the heroin with bone meal in Afghanistan. History
Discovery
Robert Koch, a German physician and scientist, first identified the bacterium that caused the anthrax disease in 1875 in Wollstein (now Wolsztyn - a town in Poland).
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.