Anthrax. What it is?

Anthrax, or malignant carbuncle, is a serious illness of an infectious nature. This disease is spread all over the world, but its Russian name was formed because most of the sick people were in Siberia.

An infectious agent is an anthrax wand that has the ability to form highly resistant spores. Disputes in the contaminated area are able to sustain activity for decades, so the territories where the cattle cemeteries were built have remained dangerous for centuries in terms of the possibility of infection.

Most often, anthrax is found in domestic cattle, pigs are less often sick. From sick animals, wild ungulates can also become infected - deer, moose, as well as dogs and cats. There have been cases when blood-sucking insects transferred the infection, for example, horseflies.

At risk are people who work with animals, as well as those who are engaged in cutting meat, processing skins. It happens that anthrax develops after eating meat or milk, obtained from a sick animal or by inhaling dust, which contains spores of the pathogen, for example, when processing wool.

In most cases (95-99%), anthrax in man develops in dermal 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 penetration of the infection, the skin becomes red, inflamed, and an ulcer is formed. The process of the development of the disease takes place quite quickly, from the onset of reddening on the skin to ulceration is only a few hours. Subsequently, the ulcer is covered with a black-colored scab, around which new ulceration begins to form. That is, the area of damage 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 the general intoxication of the body - high fever, tachycardia, a sense of weakness, a headache. The febrile state lasts for a week, and the temperature changes abruptly. Usually, the patient develops a single ulcer. The severity of the disease does not depend on the number of ulcers.

Above described only one form in which anthrax can occur , symptoms of other forms may differ slightly. For example, a visible carbuncle may not form - where an infection has entered, a painful edema appears, in the place of which necrosis of the skin is formed. Sometimes on the site of the lesion there are huge bubbles, with hemorrhagic or whitish liquid, after the opening of which ulcers and scabs are formed.

The anthrax is very hard in pulmonary form, even with timely treatment by modern means, it is not always possible to avoid the patient's death. The disease, as a rule, begins suddenly, the temperature rises sharply, the patient feels the strongest chills, eyes begin to water, a fear of light appears. There are catarrhal phenomena - coughing, shortness of breath, hoarse voice. The condition of patients from the first minutes becomes severe, they suffer from tachycardia, acute pain in the chest, in the phlegm, you can see blood when you cough. Lethal outcome occurs on the second or third day of the disease.

Equally dangerous is the intestinal form of this disease, in which there are severe pains in the abdomen combined with symptoms of general intoxication. The condition progressively worsens, and more often the disease ends with death as a result of toxic shock.

With any form of the course of the disease, sepsis can develop, which triggers the emergence of secondary foci of infection, for example, meningitis, liver damage and other internal organs.

Treat anthrax with antibiotics of penicillin and tetracycline, but, as already noted, it is not always possible to achieve recovery.