Infectionist Malyshev told how you can get anthrax

“Do not chase cheapness, do not buy meat from your hands or in spontaneous markets”

The diagnosis of anthrax in the majority of the population causes fear – the disease is really dangerous. Today, outbreaks of anthrax, although rare, are still recorded in Russia. And recently, this infection was discovered in a resident of the Voronezh region, which happened for the first time in several years. Can an anthrax epidemic happen in the country, how to treat it and how to avoid infection?

Many people are convinced that plague and anthrax are ancient infections that no longer occur today. Of course it isn’t. Cases of plague and anthrax are regularly recorded throughout the world and represent a serious problem for veterinary medicine and public health in many countries. And although epidemics of these formidable diseases are definitely not worth fearing, local outbreaks occur regularly.

Anthrax belongs to a group of particularly dangerous bacterial infections: it is caused by the bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which is able to form spores that are resistant in the environment. These spores can stay for years in soil, water, and persist in plants. That is why it is not possible to defeat anthrax in the world. Anthrax outbreaks are reported in Russia every year among cattle, and people are almost always infected. According to the Stavropol Anti-Plague Scientific Institute, since the end of the 19th century in our country, outbreaks of this disease have occurred in 35,000 settlements. The most endemic federal districts are the North Caucasian and Siberian. Domestic epidemiologists call the situation with anthrax in the country unstable: since 1996, outbreaks have been recorded in 6 federal districts. Every second case occurred in the south of the Russian Federation: most often in Stavropol and Dagestan (last year there were two outbreaks in Dagestan).

As the well-known infectious disease specialist, Professor Nikolai Malyshev, told the MK observer, anthrax, as its name implies, was first described in Russia: “And from time to time it occurs with us. The causative agent of the disease is very resistant to environmental influences, it can remain in the soil for a particularly long time, which is why we pay so much attention to cattle burial grounds. Why do people get infected? Due to the fact that in some private farms, when an animal falls ill, it is slaughtered more than aspirations, so as not to lose money. Therefore, when buying meat from individual farms, ask for a certificate from a veterinarian that the animal was examined before slaughter. In general, it is better never to buy meat from your hands, it is quite dangerous. Most often, those who care for animals, or those who consume poorly thermally processed meat, get sick. Large farms always vaccinate animals, this is a requirement of sanitary and epidemiological supervision, and private traders often do not vaccinate livestock. Therefore, do not chase cheapness, do not buy meat from your hands or in spontaneous markets.

The disease is transmitted to humans exclusively from animals (cows, horses, donkeys, sheep, goats, deer, camels), as well as through unheated meat and milk. In animals, the disease most often manifests itself in an acute form: with high fever, loss of appetite, swelling of the head and neck.

Fortunately, infected people do not pose any danger to others. Epidemiologists have long blamed private farms for the emergence of such outbreaks, which ignore the vaccination of cattle against dangerous infections.

As Professor Malyshev says, in humans, the disease can occur in different forms: “For example, a relatively mild form involves damage to the skin and mucous membranes. This form develops if contact with an infected animal was superficial. Skin forms can also be after the bites of some insects. There is even a version that mosquitoes can also transmit anthrax. The infection is not transmitted from person to person. But there is also a septic lesion of the whole organism, this is already a severe form of the disease. In the generalized form, the internal organs are affected, this course of the disease occurs mainly after eating the meat or blood of infected animals (symptoms are fever, chills, headache, severe weakness and aching pain in the lower back).

In addition, there are pulmonary and intestinal forms of the disease, they develop when infected through anthrax spores from dust and animal hair. Symptoms of the pulmonary form: chest pain, shortness of breath, pneumonia; intestinal – diarrhea, vomiting, flatulence. With the mildest and most common (95% of cases) cutaneous form, the prognosis is favorable, but if left untreated, the probability of death reaches 10%. But with the pulmonary form without treatment, people die already in 80% of cases (with treatment – about 45%).

You can avoid infection only if you follow the rules of hygiene and a responsible attitude to the purchase of products. Even if you cook the meat well, there is no guarantee that you will not become infected while cutting it, cutting your finger or accidentally inhaling the spores. In addition, experts have long called for greater control over private farms, which are not only careless about vaccinations, but also often do not comply with the rules for slaughtering and butchering livestock. However, no progress has been made in this regard so far.

Published in the newspaper “Moskovsky Komsomolets” No. 29097 dated August 22, 2023

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