ANTHRAX...

Anthrax in Bangladesh

Few days ago in Pabna (a district of Bangladesh) about 35 patients have found who are affected by anthrax. The authority has confirmed this.

What is Anthrax?

Anthrax is an acute disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. It affects both humans and animals. Most forms of the disease are highly lethal.

Bacillus anthracis can form dormant spores that are able to survive in harsh conditions for extremely long period. When spores are inhaled, ingested, or come into contact with the skin on a host, they may reactivate and multiply rapidly.

Overview

Anthrax is one of the oldest recorded diseases of grazing animals such as sheep and cattle and is believed to be the Sixth Plague mentioned in the Book of Exodus in the Bible.

French scientist Louis Pasteur developed the first effective vaccine for anthrax in 1881. Anthrax infection is now relatively rare in domestic animals with normally only a few dozen cases reported every year. Anthrax is even rarer in dogs and cats.

Discovery

Robert Koch, a German physician and scientist, first identified the bacteria in 1875 which caused the anthrax disease. In a groundbreaking series of experiments he uncovered the life cycle and means of transmission of anthrax. Koch went on to study the mechanisms of other diseases and was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the bacteria causing tuberculosis. Koch is today recognized as one of history's most important biologists and a founder of modern bacteriology.

Treatment and prevention

Effective decontamination of people can be accomplished by a thorough wash down with antimicrobial effective soap and water. Chlorine bleach is ineffective in destroying spores and vegetative cells on surfaces. Burning clothing is very effective in destroying spores.

Treatment for anthrax infection and other bacterial infections includes large doses of intravenous and oral antibiotics, such as fluoroquinolones, like ciprofloxacin (cipro), doxycycline, erythromycin, vancomycin or penicillin.

Anthrax vaccines

An anthrax vaccine licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and produced from one non-virulent strain of the anthrax bacterium, is manufactured by BioPort Corporation, subsidiary of Emergent BioSolutions. The trade name is BioThrax, although it is commonly called Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA).

An accident: Soviet Union (April 2, 1979)

Despite signing the 1972 agreement to end bio weapon production the government of the Soviet Union had an active bio weapons program that included the production of anthrax. On April 2, 1979 in Sverdlovsk (now called Ekaterinburg, Russia), about 850 miles east of Moscow, were exposed to an accident from a biological weapon complex. At least 94 people were infected of whom at least 68 died.