ANTHRAX VACCINE : Model of a Response to the Biologic Warfare Threat - 08/09/11
Résumé |
Anthrax in nature is a usually fatal zoonotic disease that was a scourge of livestock until vaccines were developed in the 1880s. Animals acquire the disease from consuming contaminated soil in which pre-existing anthrax spores are likely to have germinated, then resporulated under appropriate soil and weather conditions, increasing their concentration in soil to infectious levels.60, 91 Human disease results from exposure to contaminated animal products. Cutaneous disease is most common. The mortality is neglible if treated, and has been 15% due to septic complications when untreated. Gastrointestinal and meningeal cases are rarely seen. Inhalation anthrax (woolsorters' disease) results from inhaling spores, most often in poorly ventilated areas. It is about 90% fatal. Antibiotics and standard interventions begun after symptoms develop rarely prevent a fatal outcome. The human infectious dose is unknown, but is estimated to be between 100,000 and 100,000,000 spores.54, 78 In animals the infectious dose is highly strain dependent, and this is likely to be true in humans as well. The high infectious dose probably accounts for the rarity of human cases.
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Vol 13 - N° 1
P. 187-208 - mars 1999 Retour au numéro
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- NEW VACCINES AGAINST TUBERCULOSIS : The Status of Current Research
- Ian M. Orme
- ARTHROPOD VACCINES
- Rogan Lee, Joan P. Opdebeeck
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