Anthrax, or malignant carbuncle, is called a serious disease of an infectious nature. This disease is spread all over the world, but its Russian name was formed because most of the cases were in Siberia.
The causative agent of the infection is the anthrax bacillus, which has the ability to form highly resistant spores. Disputes in a contaminated area are able to remain active for decades, so the territories where cattle burial grounds were arranged have remained dangerous for centuries in terms of the possibility of infection.
Most often, anthrax is found in livestock, pigs are less likely to get sick. Wild ungulates such as deer, moose, and also dogs and cats can become infected from sick animals. There have been cases when the infection was carried by bloodsucking insects, such as horseflies.
At risk are people who work with animals, as well as those who are engaged in cutting meat, processing hides. It happens that anthrax develops after eating meat or milk obtained from a sick animal or by inhaling dust that contains spores of the pathogen, for example, when processing wool.
In most cases (95-99%), anthrax in humans develops in cutaneous form. But sometimes a rarer form develops - pulmonary or gastric.
The causative agent of anthrax is introduced into the human body through microscopic skin lesions. The incubation period, as a rule, lasts from 2 to 8 days. Then, at the site of infection, the skin turns red, becomes inflamed, and an ulcer forms. The process of the development of the disease proceeds quickly enough, from the occurrence of redness on the skin to ulceration, only a few hours pass. Subsequently, the ulcer is covered with a black scab, around which new ulcerations begin to form. That is, the affected area begins to grow.
Most often, anthrax is localized on the hands, sometimes on the face. The growth of skin lesions is accompanied by a condition characteristic of general intoxication of the body - high fever, tachycardia, a feeling of weakness, headache. A febrile state lasts for a week, and the temperature changes spasmodically. Usually, a patient develops a single ulcer. Moreover, the severity of the disease does not depend on the number of ulcers.
Only one form is described above, in which anthrax can occur , the symptoms of other forms may vary slightly. For example, the visible carbuncle may not form - where the infection has penetrated, a painful swelling appears, in the place of which skin necrosis forms. Sometimes huge blisters appear at the site of the lesion, with hemorrhagic or whitish fluid, after opening which ulcers and scabs form.
Anthrax in the pulmonary form is very severe, even with timely treatment with modern means, it is not always possible to avoid the death of the patient. The disease, as a rule, begins suddenly, the temperature rises sharply, the patient feels severe chills, his eyes begin to watery, and there is a fear of light. Catarrhal phenomena are noted - coughing, shortness of breath, hoarse voice. The condition of patients from the first minutes becomes severe, they suffer from tachycardia, acute chest pain, and in the sputum when coughing up, you can see blood. Fatal outcome occurs on the second or third day of illness.
Equally dangerous is the intestinal form of this disease, in which severe abdominal pain is noted in combination with symptoms of general intoxication. The condition progressively worsens, and most often the disease ends in death as a result of toxic shock.
With any form of the course of the disease, sepsis can develop, which provokes the occurrence of secondary foci of infection, for example, meningitis, lesions of the liver and other internal organs.
They treat anthrax with penicillin and tetracycline antibiotics, however, as already noted, recovery is not always possible.