ANTHRAX: NEAR AND FAR

Abstract

Anthrax refers to particularly dangerous infections with high mortality, which, with untimely diagnosis and the absence of etiotropic therapy, can reach 90%, and with the pulmonary form — 100%. According to WHO, from two to twenty thousand cases of anthrax in humans are registered annually in the world, including fatal cases, more often in developing countries. In August 2023, an anthrax outbreak was identified in Kazakhstan. In Russia, over the past 15 years, only about 10–30 cases of this disease in humans have been registered annually, while the last two ones were recorded in March 2023 in Chuvashia. At the same time, the risk of anthrax outbreaks in the country exists due to the large number of soil anthrax foci, both registered and not accounted for, spontaneous sanitation of which cannot be expected. The exposure of such foci can be facilitated by the currently increased risks of man-made and natural disasters, as well as stable trends in increasing the temperature regime. This is confirmed by the outbreak of anthrax in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in July 2016, the provoking factor of which is considered to be an abnormally high temperature (more than 34 °C for several days). The increased relevance of this disease is also associated with a sharp increase in the threat of bioterrorism in modern conditions, the potential agent of which is the causative agent of anthrax. Due to the high resistance of the pathogen spores in the environment, the aerosol mechanism of disease transmission, the possibility of obtaining antibiotic-resistant strains and strains that cause disease in the immune body, the anthrax causative agent is one of the most likely infectious agents that can be used to create biological weapons.