Case history
Case history
A middle-aged man from Turkey presents with a painless eschar on his right middle finger. The surrounding area is notably edematous and he describes the initial lesion, starting 2 days ago, as a mildly pruritic vesicle. His symptoms have been accompanied by regional lymphadenopathy, low-grade fevers, and malaise. The patient is otherwise healthy, but frequently handles goat and sheep hides in preparation for sale abroad.
Other presentations
While cutaneous disease accounts for 95% of infections caused by Bacillus anthracis, cases of inhalation, ingestion, and injection anthrax have been reported.[3][4][5][6][7]
Symptoms of inhalation anthrax include fever, nonproductive cough, myalgia, and malaise, and typically develop within 1 week after exposure, but may take up to 2 months.[7] Disease progression is rapid, often resulting in dyspnea, stridor, and death within 24-72 hours.[8]
Rarely, ingestion of endospore-contaminated meat leads to gastrointestinal infection characterized by fever, rebound tenderness, and ascites. Toxemia or intestinal perforation leads to death in many cases. Oropharyngeal lesions may be observed in the oral cavity or oropharynx, and may be associated with sore throat, difficulty swallowing, and swelling of the neck.
Symptoms of injection anthrax are similar to cutaneous anthrax; however, infection may be deep under the skin or in the muscle where the drug was injected.
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