DiseaseIllness

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease that exists in animals and can by transmitted to humans. Caused by Bacillus anthracis
Anthrax
primarily affects farm animals such as goats
hogs
sheep
horses. In the majority of these cases the disease is fatal. To simply how the disease works: Bacillus anthracis creates toxins that cause fluid to accumulate in the body's tissues and kill cells.

Found in the soil
Anthrax spores have been been discovered to be able to survive for decades. It is most common for an animal to contract the disease while grazing in a field. Although you can become sick from eating the meat of an infected animal
it is most common that infected individuals have come in direct contact with an infected animal. This characteristic of Anthrax makes it almost completely restricted to certain occupations that handle animals first hand
such as veterinarians
and farmers.

In it's simple state
Anthrax is not generally fatal to humans. However
if not treated
the disease can work it's way through the blood vessels causing posoining of the blodd and death. Another type of Anthrax is
Gastrointestinal anthrax
which is much more fatal. Typically Gastrointestinal anthrax will begin with symptoms such as nausea
vomiting
and fever
and can then be followed by abdominal bleeding
tissue death
and septicemia.

Anthrax is a very well known
disease that ages back to ancient history. Most recently
in 2001
Anthrax was raised to a top concern when letters containing the Anthrax bacteria were mailed to several individuals
killing 5. These events were part of the growing terrorist problems in the United States
such as the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center.