| Disease/Syndrome |
Anthrax |
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| Category |
Infection, Occupational |
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| Acute/Chronic |
Acute-Severe |
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| Synonyms |
Malignant pustule; Malignant edema; Woolsorter disease; Ragpicker disease; Bacillus anthracis infection |
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| Biomedical References |
Search PubMed |
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| Comments |
In cutaneous anthrax, a brown-red papule becomes indurated and then ulcerates, producing a black eschar in 2-5 days. The skin lesion may be confused with orf. Cutaneous anthrax may spread to regional lymph nodes and beyond to cause the systemic form of the disease. The case-fatality rate of untreated cutaneous anthrax is 5%-20%. Anthrax can be effectively treated with antibiotics. Reservoirs are mainly herbivores, domestic and wild, including cattle, horses, sheep, goats, and swine. [CCDM, p. 20-25] Cutaneous anthrax begins as a pruritic papule. The skin surrounding the developing ulcer and eschar is edematous. Satellite lesions may appear. Anthrax necrotic ulcers are usually painless compared to painful brown recluse spider bites. [PPID, p. 2486] Following the 2001 anthrax attacks, there were 11 cases of nonfatal cutaneous anthrax and 11 cases of inhalational anthrax (5 fatal). Patients with inhalational anthrax had fever, sweating, nausea/vomiting, nonproductive cough, dyspnea, chest pain, headache, hypoxemia, and elevated hepatic transaminases. The median WBC count was in the high-normal range. Of the 10 patients with chest x-rays, 7 had infiltrates, 7 had mediastinal widening, and 8 had pleural effusions. Postmortem findings included hemorrhagic mediastinitis and hemorrhagic meningitis. Vaccination and antibiotics provide the optimum protection after exposure. [JAMA. 2002;287:2236-52] |
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| Latency/Incubation |
1-7 days |
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| Diagnostic |
Polychrome methylene blue stain (Gram positive bacilli in long chains); Blood culture; [CCDM] PCR on blood or tissue; Paired sera (4-fold rise); [Lexi-ID, p. 42] |
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| ICD-9 Code |
022.9 |
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| Available Vaccine |
Yes |
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| Effective Antimicrobics |
Yes |
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| Reference Link |
OSHA - Anthrax |
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| Image |
CDC Anthrax | Images: Cutaneous Anthrax |
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| X-Ray |
CDC Anthrax | Images: Inhalational Anthrax |
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| Related Information in Haz-Map |
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| Symptoms/Findings |
Symptoms/Findings associated with this disease:
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| Job Tasks |
High risk job tasks associated with this disease:
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