Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine

Title abbreviation: Adv Clin Exp Med
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Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine

2018, vol. 27, nr 4, April, p. 553–558

doi: 10.17219/acem/68380

Publication type: review

Language: English

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Injectional anthrax in human: A new face of the old disease

Aleksandra A. Zasada1,A,B,C,D,E,F

1 National Institute of Public Health – National Institute of Hygiene, Warsaw, Poland

Abstract

Unusual human behavior leads to the emergence of new forms of infectious diseases and new routes of infection. In recent years, a new form of anthrax, called injectional anthrax, emerged and was related to 2 human anthrax outbreaks in Europe. The infection was caused by heroin contaminated with anthrax spores. The new form of anthrax differs from the earlier known "natural" forms of the disease in symptoms, length of the incubation period and recommended treatment. Despite medical treatment, the mortality rate in injectional anthrax is about 35%. This article presents an overview of the forms of anthrax infection in humans, with focus on injectional anthrax syndrome, as well as actual recommendations for treatment, including antibiotic therapy, surgery and possibilities of administering anthrax antitoxin. As a source of contamination of heroin have not been identified and new cases of injectional anthrax might occur again in any country in the future.

Key words

treatment, anthrax, drug users, soft tissue infection

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