What Are the Symptoms of Anthrax? How Can You Protect Yourself?
According to data from the Ministry of Health, the number of anthrax-related deaths over a 10-year period was 8.
What is anthrax?
Anthrax is a disease transmitted to humans from animals such as cattle, sheep, and goats; in humans, it causes illness affecting the skin, intestines, and lungs. In Turkey, cutaneous (skin) anthrax is the most commonly seen form.
How does anthrax spread?
Through the skin, via contact with infected animals or objects and materials they have contaminated;
Through the intestines, by consuming meat from animals carrying the anthrax bacterium;
Through the lungs, by inhaling dust contaminated with anthrax spores or spores found in animal hides and wool.
What are the symptoms of anthrax?
Symptoms of the disease begin to appear 2–7 days after the bacterium enters the body.
Cutaneous Anthrax; begins with swelling and itching at the site where the bacterium entered the skin, which within 1–2 days turns into a fluid-filled blister. A sore with a black center then develops. For this reason, cutaneous anthrax is also commonly known among the public as "black blister" or "shepherd's boil."
Intestinal Anthrax; begins with nausea, vomiting, loss of appetite, and fever. This is followed by abdominal pain, bloody vomiting, and bloody diarrhea. Even when treatment is initiated, the mortality rate for this type of anthrax is around 50%.
Pulmonary Anthrax; begins with symptoms resembling a common cold, with high fever and chills. After a few days, severe respiratory distress and shock develop. The disease generally results in death.
How can you protect yourself from anthrax?
Make sure to have your animals vaccinated against anthrax!
Report any suspicious animal deaths to the authorities!
Never slaughter animals with anthrax, skin them, or consume their meat!
According to Ministry of Health data, the number of anthrax-related deaths over the 10-year period covering 2008–2017 was 8. While 32 cases were recorded in 2016, resulting in 1 death, that number rose to 37 the following year.
Anthrax, which has emerged particularly in sacrificial animals in recent times, is one of the animal diseases that has long been known to those involved in animal husbandry in Turkey.
The website of the Zoonotic and Vector-Borne Diseases Department of the General Directorate of Public Health under the Ministry of Health provides detailed information about the disease, along with data on the number of anthrax cases and deaths.
Deaths from anthrax
According to Ministry of Health data, varying numbers of anthrax cases were recorded each year during the 10-year period covering 2008–2017. While 235 cases were recorded in 2008, the number dropped to its lowest point of 32 in 2016 before rising to 37 the following year.
Deaths from anthrax were also recorded during this period. Over 10 years, the total number of anthrax-related deaths was 8. In 2008, 2009, 2014, and 2016, one person each died from anthrax, while in 2011 and 2013, two people died from anthrax each year.
