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Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)
1996 Case Definition
Clinical description
An illness with acute onset characterized by several
distinct clinical forms, including the following:
- Cutaneous: a skin lesion evolving during a
period of 2-6 days from a papule, through a vesicular stage,
to a depressed black eschar
- Inhalation: a brief prodrome resembling a viral
respiratory illness, followed by development of hypoxia and
dyspnea, with radiographic evidence of mediastinal widening
- Intestinal: severe abdominal distress followed
by fever and signs of septicemia
- Oropharyngeal: mucosal lesion in the oral cavity
or oropharynx, cervical adenopathy and edema, and fever
Laboratory criteria for diagnosis
- Isolation of Bacillus anthracis from
a clinical specimen, or
- Anthrax electrophoretic immunotransblot (EITB)
reaction to the protective antigen and/or lethal factor bands
in one or more serum samples obtained after onset of symptoms,
or
- Demonstration of B. anthracis in a
clinical specimen by immunofluorescence
Case classification
Confirmed: a clinically
compatible case that is laboratory confirmed
See also:
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