List of anthrax outbreaks

This page lists notable outbreaks of anthrax, a disease of humans and other mammals caused by Bacillus anthracis, organized by year.^[1]

1979

On April 2, 1979 outbreak of anthrax infection happened in Sverdlovsk, USSR. According to one version the anthrax spores were accidentally released from the Cold-war-era secret military facility causing anthrax outbreak. An official report stated 64 people died during April and June. Overall victims died within first weeks after exposure to deadly bacteria and 11 others survived.^[2][3][4] Allegedly traces of the leak were covered up by KGB and local and soviet authorities. Soviet Union strongly denied any involvement and blamed locals of consuming infected meat in fear of revelation of Biological Weapons Convention violation^[5] meanwhile spreading among locals leaflets vial mailboxes, posts and articles warning to restrain from buying meat from unofficial market.^[2][4] The incident was kept secret up until 90s.^[2] Primary the form of anthrax infection was pulmonary anthrax but earlier soviet scientists disguised it as gastrointestinal to conform to "meat" version. Some journalists claimed that the death toll was as high as 100 victims.

2001

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 inhalational anthrax. 20 of the 22 infected worked at a site where contaminated mail was handled or received.^[6]

2009

In December 2009, a woman in New Hampshire was confirmed to have gastrointestinal anthrax. The woman is likely to have been infected at a drum event some days before she fell ill.^[7] Samples taken from the drum head were found to be positive for Bacillus anthracis.^[7] Others who had attended the event were offered antibiotics.^[7] The patient survived, and no additional cases were identified in this outbreak.^[7][8]

2014

In October 2014, an outbreak of anthrax in a village in India allegedly killed seven people. The village was located in the Simdega district within the Indian state of Jharkhand. Indian government health personnel quarantined 30 houses as a result. Officials traced the anthrax spores to a cow, and found that people who had touched the dead cow or eaten from it became infected. The Indian National Centre for Disease Control said at the time that the outbreak was one of the biggest in recent years in terms of deaths.^[9] Government officials sent samples of the suspected anthrax to a laboratory in Delhi for confirmation testing. People with the victims reported that the victims vomited blood and complained of chest and stomach aches.^[10] The Hindustan Times reported that village residents lynched a man who had treated some anthrax patients with herbs.^[11]

2016

In July 2016, nearly 100 people have been hospitalized amid an anthrax outbreak from nomadic communities in northern Siberia, Russia and more than 2,300 reindeer died from anthrax infections in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. A 12 year-old child also died due to the outbreak.^[12] Scientists believe the melting unearthed the frozen carcass of a reindeer that died in the previous anthrax outbreak in 1968.^[13]

See also

• Anthrax
• Bacillus anthracis

References