Anthrax Plauges Test 1

Bacillus anthracis

Cause of anthrax found in soil and pathogenic for grazing animals

Black Death bacterium genus

Yersinia

Anthrax similarity to plague

Both form hardy spores that can linger in soil for years

Anthrax infection routes

Skin contact

Skin anthrax

From handling infected animals or wool (“woolsorters disease”)

Inhalation anthrax

Most severe form

Robert Koch

Identified Bacillus anthracis and developed Koch’s postulates

Louis Pasteur

Made the first vaccine for anthrax using an attenuated strain

Koch’s postulates

Criteria linking a microbe to a disease

Human anthrax treatment pre-2002

Antibiotics 90% effective for skin

Human anthrax treatment post-2002

Almost 100% effective for skin

Anthrax spores

Dormant

Spore properties

Non-growing

Gruinard Island

British germ warfare site contaminated with anthrax spores in 1942

Anthrax spore decontamination

280 tons formaldehyde in 2000 tons seawater (1986)

How anthrax grows

Spores germinate

Capsule function

Slime coat that prevents phagocytes from consuming bacteria

Capsule genetics

Encoded on a plasmid

Anthrax toxins

Lethal factor (LF)

PA function

Delivers LF and EF into host cells (“Trojan horse”)

Toxin mechanism

LF and EF pass through PA-created hole

Cause of death in anthrax

Due to toxin overload

Anthrax as bioterror

Used in 2001 mail attacks (23 cases

Effective bioweapon traits

Highly infectious

Bioterror fear factors

Probability of occurrence and probability of death

Vaccine as weapon

Can protect only target population while leaving others vulnerable