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