Anthrax is a job hazard before it is anything else

Anthrax is rare, and most people will never be exposed to it. Which makes
this one of the few infectious disease risks that can be described almost
entirely by occupation.

Who is at higher risk

• Working in a laboratory that handles anthrax
• Working with animals or handling animal products — veterinarians,
  farmers, livestock producers

Anthrax lives in soil and infects grazing animals. The people who meet it are
the people who meet those animals, or who work with the organism deliberately.

That is a useful thing to be clear about in both directions: it tells a
livestock producer this page is about them, and it tells everyone else that
it is not.

What to do about it

**If you have one of these jobs, take steps to protect yourself from
exposure.**

If you are exposed, seek medical care immediately.

**Vaccine and antibiotics taken right after exposure can help prevent
anthrax and protect against severe illness.**

That sentence is the reason speed matters. Post-exposure prophylaxis works
before the disease establishes itself, and anthrax is not an illness where
waiting to see whether symptoms appear is a reasonable strategy — by the time
they do, the outcome is substantially decided.

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.