Anthrax is caused by the gram-positive Bacillus anthracis, which are toxin-producing, encapsulated, facultative anaerobic organisms. Anthrax, an often fatal disease of animals, is transmitted to humans by contact with infected animals or their products. In humans, infection is typically acquired through the skin. Inhalation infection is less common; oropharyngeal, meningeal, and gastrointestinal infections are rare. For inhalation and gastrointestinal infections, nonspecific local symptoms are typically followed in several days by severe systemic illness, shock, and often death. Empiric treatment is with fluoroquinolones or doxycycline. A vaccine is available.
(See also the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Emergency Preparedness regarding anthrax.)
Etiology of Anthrax
Anthrax is an important domestic animal disease, occurring in goats, cattle, sheep, and horses. Anthrax also occurs in wildlife, such as hippos, elephants, and Cape buffalo. It is rare in humans and incidence has decreased in many countries; it occurs mainly in countries that do not prevent industrial or agricultural exposure to infected animals or their products (eg, hides, carcasses, hair).
However, the potential use of anthrax as a biological weapon has increased fear of this pathogen. Spores have been prepared in very finely powdered form (weaponized) to be used as agents of warfare and bioterrorism; in anthrax bioattacks of 2001, spores were spread in envelopes delivered via the United States Postal Service.
Pathophysiology of Anthrax
Bacillus anthracis form spores when they are under conditions that are unfavorable for growth (eg, a dry environment). Spores resist destruction and can remain viable in soil, wool, and animal hair and hides for decades. Spores germinate and begin multiplying rapidly when they enter an environment rich in amino acids and glucose (eg, tissue, blood).
Human infection can be acquired by
Cutaneous contact (most common)
Ingestion
Inhalation
Injection
Cutaneous infection is usually acquired by contact with infected animals, spore-contaminated animal products, or soil-containing spores or rarely by injection from contaminated heroin in injection drug users. Open wounds or abrasions increase susceptibility, but infection may occur when skin is intact. Cutaneous anthrax is typically not contagious, but in very rare instances skin infection may be transmitted from person to person by direct contact or fomites.
Gastrointestinal (including oropharyngeal) infection may occur after ingestion of inadequately cooked meat containing the vegetative forms of the organism, usually when a break in the pharyngeal or intestinal mucosa facilitates invasion. Ingested anthrax can cause lesions from the oral cavity to the cecum. Released toxin causes hemorrhagic necrotic ulcers and mesenteric lymphadenitis, which may lead to intestinal hemorrhage, obstruction, or perforation.
Pulmonary infection (inhalation anthrax), caused by inhaling spores, is almost always due to occupational exposure to contaminated animal products (eg, hides) and is often fatal.
Gastrointestinal anthrax and inhalation anthrax are not transmitted from person to person.
After entering the body, spores germinate inside macrophages, which migrate to regional lymph nodes where the bacteria multiply. In inhalation anthrax, spores are deposited in alveolar spaces, where they are ingested by macrophages, which migrate to mediastinal lymph nodes, usually causing a hemorrhagic mediastinitis.
Bacteremia may occur in any form of anthrax and occurs in nearly all fatal cases; meningeal involvement is common.
Limited data suggest that cutaneous anthrax does not result in acquired immunity, particularly if early effective antimicrobial therapy was used. Inhalation anthrax may provide some immunity in patients who survive, but data are very limited.
Virulence factors
The virulence of B. anthracis is due to its
Antiphagocytic capsule
Toxins (factors)
Rapid replication capability
The predominant toxins are edema toxin and lethal toxin. A cell-binding protein, called protective antigen (PA), binds to target cells and facilitates cellular entry of edema toxin and lethal toxin. Edema toxin causes massive local edema. Lethal toxin triggers a massive release of cytokines from macrophages, which is responsible for the sudden death common among people with anthrax infection.
Symptoms and Signs of Anthrax
Most patients with anthrax present within 1 to 6 days of exposure, but for inhalation anthrax, the incubation period can be > 6 weeks.
Cutaneous anthrax begins as a painless, pruritic, red-brown papule that forms 1 to 10 days after exposure to infective spores. The papule enlarges with a surrounding zone of brawny erythema and marked edema. Vesiculation and induration are present. Central ulceration follows, with serosanguineous exudation and formation of a black eschar (the malignant pustule). Local lymphadenopathy is common, occasionally with malaise, myalgia, headache, fever, nausea, and vomiting. It may take several weeks for the wound to heal and the edema to resolve.
Gastrointestinal anthrax ranges from asymptomatic to fatal. Fever, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, and bloody diarrhea are common. Ascites may be present. Intestinal necrosis and septicemia with potentially lethal toxicity ensue.
Oropharyngeal anthrax manifests as edematous lesions with central necrotic ulcers on the tonsils, posterior pharyngeal wall, or hard palate. Soft-tissue swelling in the neck is marked, and cervical lymph nodes are enlarged. Symptoms include hoarseness, sore throat, fever, and dysphagia. Airway obstruction may occur.
Inhalation anthrax begins insidiously as a flu-like illness. Within a few days, fever worsens, and chest pain and severe respiratory distress develop, followed by cyanosis, shock, and coma. Severe hemorrhagic necrotizing lymphadenitis develops and spreads to adjacent mediastinal structures. Serosanguineous transudation, pulmonary edema, and bloody pleural effusion occur. Typical bronchopneumonia does not occur. Hemorrhagic meningoencephalitis or gastrointestinal anthrax may develop.
Diagnosis of Anthrax
Gram stain and culture
Direct fluorescent antibody (DFA) test and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay
Occupational and exposure history is important.
Cultures and Gram stain of samples from clinically identified sites, including cutaneous or mucosal lesions, blood, pleural fluid, cerebrospinal fluid, ascites, or stool, should be done. Sputum examination and Gram stain are unlikely to identify inhalation anthrax because airspace disease is frequently absent.
A PCR test and immunohistochemical methods (eg, DFA) can help.
Nasal swab testing for spores in people potentially exposed to inhalation anthrax is not recommended because the negative predictive value is unknown. Although a positive nasal swab culture indicates exposure, a negative nasal swab does not mean that exposure has not occurred.
Pearls & Pitfalls
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Chest x-ray (or CT) should be done if pulmonary symptoms are present. It typically shows widening of the mediastinum (because of enlarged hemorrhagic lymph nodes) and pleural effusion. Pneumonic infiltrates are uncommon.
Lumbar puncture should be done if patients have meningeal signs or a change in mental status. If a lumbar puncture cannot be done, central nervous system imaging by CT with contrast or MRI with contrast should be done to document meningeal enhancement characteristics of meningitis and identify hemorrhagic parenchymal lesions characteristic of anthrax meningoencephalitis.
An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) can detect antibody in serum, but confirmation requires a 4-fold change in antibody titer from acute to convalescent specimens.
Treatment of Anthrax
Antibiotics
Other medications
Pleural fluid drainage
If treatment of anthrax is delayed (usually because the diagnosis is missed), the risk of death is increased.
Antibiotics
Cutaneous anthrax without significant edema or systemic symptoms or risk of inhalation exposure is treated with one of the following antibiotics for 7 to 10 days:
Mortality is rare with treatment, but the lesion will progress through the eschar phase.
Children and pregnant or breastfeeding women, who typically should not be given ciprofloxacin, levofloxacin, moxifloxacin, or doxycycline
Inhalation and other forms of anthrax, including cutaneous anthrax with significant edema or systemic symptoms, require therapy with 3 antibiotics. Antibiotic therapy should include ≥ 2 antibiotics with bactericidal activity, and ≥ 1 should be a protein synthesis inhibitor, which may block toxin production. If the B. anthracis
Treatment should be given intravenously for ≥ 2 weeks or until the patient is clinically stable, whichever is longer. Once IV combination therapy is completed, therapy should be continued with a single oral antibiotic given for 60 days to prevent relapse resulting from ungerminated spores in the lungs.
Appropriate antibiotics with bactericidal activity include
Appropriate antibiotics that inhibit protein synthesis include
Linezolid should be used with caution in patients with myelosuppression; it cannot be used for long periods because of its neurologic side effects.
Chloramphenicol has good central nervous system penetration and has been used to successfully treat anthrax (1).
Rifampin, although not a protein synthesis inhibitor, may be used in this capacity because it has a synergistic effect with the primary antibiotic.
Doxycycline is an alternative protein synthesis inhibitor option if linezolid or clindamycin is contraindicated or unavailable.
If meningitis is suspected, meropenem should be used with other antibiotics because it has good central nervous system penetration. If meropenem
Other medications
Corticosteroids may be useful for meningitis and severe mediastinal edema but have not been evaluated adequately.
B. anthracis toxin and can be used in combination with antibiotics to treat inhalation anthrax. These monoclonal antibodies have shown efficacy in animal models of inhalation anthrax, particularly when given early.
IV anthrax human immune globulin prepared from the plasma of donors who have been vaccinated against anthrax can be used in combination with antibiotics to treat inhalation anthrax.
Drug resistance
Drug resistance is a concern. Although normally sensitive to penicillin, B. anthracis manifests inducible beta-lactamases (1), so single-drug therapy with a penicillin or a cephalosporin is generally not recommended.
Pleural fluid drainage
Patients with inhalation anthrax require supportive care and sometimes mechanical ventilation. Prompt and continuous pleural fluid drainage by chest tube is critical.
Treatment reference
1. Hendricks KA, Wright ME, Shadomy SV, et al: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Expert Panel meetings on prevention and treatment of anthrax in adults. Emerg Infect Dis 20(2), 2014. doi: 10.3201/eid2002.130687
Prognosis for Anthrax
Case fatality rates in untreated anthrax vary depending on infection type (1, 2):
Inhalation and meningeal anthrax: 100%
Cutaneous anthrax: 10 to 20%
Gastrointestinal anthrax: About 40%
Oropharyngeal anthrax: 12 to 50%
With early diagnosis, treatment, and intensive support, including mechanical ventilation, fluids, and vasopressors, mortality of inhalation anthrax may be reduced.
Prognosis references
1. Person MK, Cook R, Bradley JS, et al: Systematic review of hospital treatment outcomes for naturally acquired and bioterrorism-related anthrax, 1880-2018. Clin Infect Dis 75(Suppl 3):S392–S401, 2022. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciac536
2. U.S. Food and Drug Administration: Anthrax. Accessed 02/21/2023.
Prevention of Anthrax
An composed of a cell-free culture filtrate containing protective antigen protein, is available for people at high risk (eg, military personnel, veterinarians, laboratory technicians, employees of textile mills processing imported goat hair). The vaccine contains no dead or live bacteria. A separate veterinary vaccine is also available.
1). Local reactions from vaccine can occur.
Postexposure prophylaxis
Postexposure measures include
Antibiotics
Vaccination
Monoclonal antibodies
Asymptomatic people (including pregnant women and children) exposed to inhaled anthrax require prophylaxis with one of the following oral antibiotics, given for 60 days:
ciprofloxacin and doxycycline are contraindicated.
Viable spores have been detected in the lungs after aerosol exposure. Because people exposed to aerosolized B. anthracis spores are presumed to be at risk of inhalation anthrax due to ungerminated spores remaining in their lungs after the initial exposure, antibiotic therapy is continued for 60 days to clear germinating organisms.
not2).
Prevention references
Key Points
Anthrax is typically acquired from infected animals but has been used as a biological weapon.
Potent toxins, including edema toxin and lethal toxin, are responsible for the most severe manifestations.
The main clinical forms of anthrax are cutaneous (most common), oropharyngeal, gastrointestinal, meningeal, and inhalation (most lethal).
Gastrointestinal and inhalation anthrax are not transmitted from person to person.
Treat with an appropriate antibiotic regimen and sometimes a monoclonal antibody that binds to the protective antigen component of B. anthracis
More Information
The following English-language resource may be useful. Please note that THE MANUAL is not responsible for the content of this resource.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC): Emergency Preparedness: Anthrax
