Anthrax

This chapter describes anthrax as a disease caused by the gram-positive, aerobic bacterium Bacillus anthracis, which was recognized in antiquity. Anthrax figures prominently in the history of modern medicine because it was the first bacterial illness for which successful vaccines were prepared by William Smith Greenfield in London and Louis Pasteur in Paris. Anthrax is a zoonosis of herbivores encountered worldwide, and human cases continue to be seen in southern Europe, Eurasia, south Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa. Grazing wild ruminants and cattle are very susceptible to anthrax, and human disease in animal husbandmen and herders is closely tied to exposure to infected beasts. The chapter analyzes reports of some areas of rural Kenya in which a substantial percentage of herdsmen are serologically positive for B. anthracis.