Anthrax

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Anthrax

As the number of Americans exposed to anthrax increases, so does public anxiety. What do you need to know? I am here to inform you of what anthrax really is? How people get anthrax? Where does anthrax come from? What are the symptoms and treatment to anthrax?
What is anthrax?
Anthrax is acute infectious animal disease that has been around for tens of thousands of years. The germ produces long-lasting infectious spores. These spores can survive in the environment for a long time. Grass-eating animals, such as cattle, are most often infected because they can eat spores living in the soil. Animal vaccination - and destruction of infected herds - has drastically reduced the number of infected animals. Even so, anthrax spores continue to be found in soil samples from all over the world.
When anthrax spores get inside the body, they grow rapidly. The germs themselves can cause dangerous infections. Far more dangerous is a substance they produce in the body called- anthrax toxin - which helps the bug survive by killing off cells of the immune system. This toxin is so deadly that it can kill even after infection is brought under control.
How do people get anthrax?
People can catch anthrax from infected animals or contaminated animal products. Most natural infection comes from skin contact. In the past, industrial wool sorters were at high risk of infection. You can also get anthrax infection from eating raw or too-rare meat - but this is uncommon. Even more uncommon - but by far most deadly - is anthrax caught by inhaling spores or infection is transmitted through the skin. . Until the events of September, 2001, there hadn’t been a case of inhalation anthrax in the U.S. since 1978. The disease has two forms: a skin from and a pulmonary form. In the skin and most contagious form of the infection is transmitted through a break in the skin. After an abrasion forms and the dead tissue and crust fall off, infections may sp...