Anthrax is a serious disease usually caused by Bacillus anthracis bacteria, which live naturally in soil worldwide and often infect livestock and wild animals. People usually catch it from infected animals or contaminated animal products. If you think you've been exposed, call a health care provider immediately.
Spores of Bacillus anthracis (Sterne strain), under an electron microscope. CDC.
How it spreads
- People can get anthrax spores into a cut or scrape, breathe them in, or eat or drink them in contaminated food or water.
- Animals — cattle, sheep, goats, antelope, deer — catch it by breathing, eating or drinking spores in contaminated soil, plants or water.
Anthrax is rare in the United States, but outbreaks do occur in grazing animals such as cattle or deer; veterinarians recommend yearly vaccination of livestock where anthrax has occurred before.
The forms of anthrax
How spores enter the body determines the illness. Every form can cause severe illness or death without antibiotics.
| Form | How | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cutaneous | spores enter a cut or scrape while handling infected animals or products such as wool, hides or hair | the most common and least deadly; mostly on the head, neck, forearms and hands |
| Inhalation | breathing in spores — e.g., in wool mills, slaughterhouses, tanneries | the deadliest; starts in the chest lymph nodes, then spreads |
| Gastrointestinal | eating raw or undercooked meat from an infected animal | rare in the U.S.; affects the throat, esophagus, stomach and intestines |
| Injection | found in people injecting heroin in northern Europe | not reported in the U.S.; infection deep under the skin or in muscle |
| Welder's anthrax | a newly identified, rare disease of welders and metalworkers, caused by slightly different bacteria | causes severe pneumonia; can be fatal |
Cutaneous anthrax: spores enter a cut in the skin. CDC.
Inhalation anthrax: breathing in spores. CDC.
Gastrointestinal anthrax: eating contaminated, raw or undercooked meat. CDC.
Welders and metalworkers: see a provider at once for fever and chills with a sudden cough, chest pain, trouble breathing or coughing up blood. More: About Welder's Anthrax.
Symptoms
Symptoms appear from one day to more than two months after exposure. Without proper treatment, every form can spread through the body and cause severe illness and death.
Cutaneous:
- a group of small, itchy blisters or bumps;
- then a painless sore with a black center, often on the face, neck, arms or hands;
- heavy swelling around the sore;
- with injection anthrax, abscesses deep under the skin or in muscle at the injection site.
Cutaneous anthrax causes telltale black sores. CDC.
Inhalation: fever and chills; heavy sweats; chest pain, cough or shortness of breath; confusion or dizziness; nausea, vomiting or stomach pain; headache or body aches; extreme tiredness.
Extensive lung damage in a 46-year-old man, 4 months after anthrax symptoms began. CDC.
Gastrointestinal: fever and chills; swollen neck or neck glands; sore throat, hoarseness, painful swallowing; nausea and vomiting, especially bloody vomit; diarrhea, possibly bloody; headache; red face and eyes; stomach pain and swelling; fainting.
Prevention
Most people will never be exposed. Some jobs, hobbies and activities raise the risk, and people doing them may be advised to get the anthrax vaccine beforehand (pre-exposure prophylaxis).
If you've been exposed, see a provider immediately and explain how. Doctors may recommend the vaccine or antibiotics to keep anthrax from developing. More: Prevention.
Antibiotics kill the bacteria that cause anthrax, and taken after exposure can prevent the disease. CDC.
Sources
Based on "About Anthrax," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain.
Licence: CC0 1.0 (public domain) · Adapted from www.cdc.gov
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