One week needed to confirm anthrax
The laboratory tests will take one week to confirm whether anthrax has invaded Shahzadpur upazila in Sirajganj, said the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR) yesterday.
On Friday, two 10-member teams of experts visited the area and collected blood samples from the people who were complaining of blisters and lesions after having the meat and processing the hides of the sick cows slaughtered in the area a few days ago.
Meanwhile, another patient suffering the same symptoms had been identified in Barabil village of the upazila yesterday. This took the official number of infected people to 39.
Motaleb, 32, is a worker of a tannery unit. He had probably handled the hides of the infected cows.
Shahzadpur district administration in a meeting yesterday decided to immediately bury the contaminated hides.
Meanwhile, based on the symptoms the civil surgeons of the area have started administering anthrax antibiotics to the patients from Friday.
"The outbreak in Sirajganj is the 8th incident in the country in one year. Earlier the disease was diagnosed in Pabna, Dhaka and other areas and 99 people were found infected," IEDCR Director Mahmudur Rahman told The Daily Star.
"But there is nothing to worry as the disease is curable and the treatment is available in the country. Anthrax does not spread directly from one infected animal or person to another," he added.
The first anthrax outbreak in the country was detected in 2004. Since then people across the country have been infected with the disease almost every year.
According to the Wikipedia, anthrax is a disease caused by the bacteria Bacillus anthracis. It commonly infects wild and domesticated herbivorous mammals. Consuming and processing the meat of infected animals may infect the carnivores.
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