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This page lists notable outbreaks of anthrax, a disease of humans and other mammals caused by Bacillus anthracis, organized by year.[1]
| Incident | Date | Casualties | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sverdlovsk anthrax leak | 2 April 1979 | Around 105 victims. | On 2 April 1979, an outbreak of anthrax occurred in Sverdlovsk, USSR. It is believed that anthrax spores were accidentally released from a secret military facility. An official report stated that 64 people died during April and June.
The victims died within a few weeks of exposure to the bacteria. 11 others survived.[2][3][4] Traces of the leak were allegedly covered up by Soviet authorities. The Soviet Union strongly denied any involvement and blamed locals consuming infected meat, in fear of revealing Biological Weapons Convention violations.[5] A leaflet campaign warned residents not to buy meat from unofficial markets.[2][4] The incident was kept secret until the 1990s.[2] Victims suffered from pulmonary anthrax but Soviet scientists claimed that it was gastrointestinal to support the claims that infected meat was responsible for the outbreak. Some journalists claimed that the death toll was as high as 100 victims. |
| 1998 Russian Federation | June - July 1998 | 2 deaths
15 infected |
A relatively small outbreak started in Russia after the consumption of meat from privately-raised cattle. All received treatment and officials reported the situation as under control by August 1998. [6] |
| 2001 anthrax attacks | 18 September 2001 | 5 deaths
17 infected |
In September 2001, letters containing anthrax spores were mailed to several news media offices and two U.S. Senators, killing five people and infecting 17 others. Of those infected, 11 developed cutaneous anthrax, while 11 developed inhalation anthrax. 20 of the 22 infected worked at a site where contaminated mail was handled or received.[7]
It is possible that Bruce Edwards Ivins was responsible for this incident. He was a doctor working on an anthrax vaccination for more than 20 years, which got pulled off the market. Federal investigators have suggested that he infected the mail with anthrax spores so the public would realize they need the anthrax vaccination.[8] He later killed himself with a tylenol overdose before charges could be brought against him. |
| 2014 anthrax outbreak | October 2014 | 7 deaths | In October 2014, an outbreak of gastrointestinal and skin anthrax in a village from India in the Simdega district, Jharkhand allegedly killed seven people. Indian government health personnel quarantined 30 houses as a result. Officials traced the anthrax spores to a cow and found that people who had touched the dead cow or eaten from it became infected. The Indian National Centre for Disease Control said at the time that the outbreak was one of the biggest in recent years in terms of deaths.[9]
Government officials sent samples of the suspected anthrax to a laboratory in Delhi for confirmation testing. People with the victims reported that the victims vomited blood and complained of chest and stomach aches.[10] The Hindustan Times reported that village residents lynched a man who had treated some anthrax patients with herbs.[11] |
| 2016 anthrax outbreak | July 2016 | 1 human death (~100 infected)
2,300 animal deaths |
In July 2016, nearly 100 people were hospitalized amid an anthrax outbreak among nomadic communities in northern Siberia, Russia and more than 2,300 reindeer died from anthrax infections in Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug. A 12-year-old child also died due to the outbreak.[12] Scientists believe the melting unearthed the frozen carcass of a reindeer that died in a previous anthrax outbreak in 1968.[13] |
| 2018 anthrax outbreak | June 2018 | Cattle farms affected in France [14] |
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