Anthrax This essay is simply entitled Anthrax. It is a brief description of the bacteria Anthrax and its effects on various aspects of life.

Essay by pennywisetheclownHigh School, 10th grade April 2002

download word file, 1 pages 3.3 5 reviews

Downloaded 176 times

Anthrax is one of the oldest known diseases caused by the bacteria bacillus anthracis. One theory about this disease is that anthrax was the Fifth Plague of Egypt mentioned in The Bible. Casimir Davaine first saw these rod-shaped bacteria in 1850. In 1876, Robert Koch discovered that bacillus anthracis caused the Anthrax disease. Louis Pastaeu developed a vaccine for anthrax. The anthrax disease is found in warm-blooded animals, including humans, although it is less common among humans than it is among animals. Animals are infected with this disease by drinking contaminated water, eating infected dead animals, and getting bitten from blood-sucking insects. The symptoms that animals experience once diagnosed with the anthrax disease include fever, chills, convulsions, and suffocation. Sometimes animals that are infected with this disease die immediately. Humans who are infected with the anthrax disease are people who have a lot of physical contact with animals, such as veterinarians and butchers.

There are two ways in which humans can be infected by the anthrax disease. One way is through open cuts in the skin. Any person who handles infected animals or animal hides with open flesh wounds is in danger of allowing the bacillus anthracis through his bloodstream. The other way is by inhaling anthrax spores from animal hide, enabling the spores to enter the lungs. Once a human is diagnosed with anthrax, swelling around the area of infection may occur. The most common form of treatment for the anthrax disease is Penicillin.