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Two More Hospitalized in Siberia Anthrax Outbreak

© RIA Novosti . Mikhail Mordasov Two More Hospitalized in Siberia Anthrax Outbreak
Two More Hospitalized in Siberia Anthrax Outbreak - Sputnik International
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Two more people have been hospitalized in Russia’s Altai Territory over suspected exposure to anthrax, bring to 13 the number of people in hospital, including three confirmed cases of anthrax poisoning, deputy governor of the Altai Territory Daniil Bessarabov said on Tuesday.

Two more people have been hospitalized in Russia’s Altai Territory over suspected exposure to anthrax, bring to 13 the number of people in hospital, including three confirmed cases of anthrax poisoning, deputy governor of the Altai Territory Daniil Bessarabov said on Tuesday.

On Saturday three people from the village of Druzhba were hospitalized and found to be infected with anthrax. Druzhba, population 740, is quarantined; all the inhabitants have been examined by doctors.

One person has died from anthrax poisoning. On Monday mass vaccination of the residents began. Doctors also suspect a man from the neighboring village of Marshuka to be infected with anthrax.

"Five people remain in the isolation ward of the hospital in Biisk with a preliminary diagnosis of anthrax," Bessarabov said.

"Labratory tests confirmed the infection in three of them. Eight people had so-called active contacts. These are people who were living in the same homes as those infected or came into contact with infected animals. The patients are receiving the necessary treatment. The doctors say that the eight people we hospitalized for observation may return home in a day or two,” he said.

Vaccination of animals in Druzhba has been completed and all necessary veterinary and disinfection measures have been carried out in a nearby village.

"The infection has been geographically localized. Preventive measures are being carried out not only in the villages of Druzhba and Marushka but much farther afield. We are trying to find out all the people who had contacts with infected animals among residents in other villages,” Bessarabov said.

The authorities have been rounding up meat from the cattle delivered from the area where the outbreak occurred. The meat of 287 head of cattle from the affected region was quarantined at a Altai slaughterhouse on Tuesday. Tests of the meat did not detect any anthrax, Savchenko said.

Meanwhile, a case of anthrax infection has been discovered in the meat of a cow in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Health Ministry reported that 32 people in Voznesensk, a village in Zaporozhye region, are at risk of being infected with anthrax. A dog infected by eating meat from the cow has died, regional veterinary official Irina Gribinenko, said.

Anthrax is fatal in about 40 percent of cases for gastro-intestinal infection. Inhalation is lethal in up to 90 percent of cases, but cutaneous infection is lethal in no more than 20 percent of cases if the victim gets early treatment, according to the Center for Biosecurity.

The disease is untreatable once the infection has had time to develop inside the victim, but can be treated with antibiotics if the infection is in its early stages. Some strains are antibiotic-resistant.

Anthrax cannot be transmitted from one human to another, but can be transmitted from infected animals to people, usually when they handle or eat infected meat.

 

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