One dead of anthrax in Azerbaijan

One person has died of anthrax in the Sabirabad region in the central part of Azerbaijan, while another person with the bacterial infection is being treated in hospital. 

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This is the first death from anthrax in Azerbaijan in many years.

What is anthrax?

Anthrax is a particularly dangerous infectious disease.

The infection is caused by bacteria found in soil, from where they can make their way to farm animals, and then be treated to humans.

Employees of livestock farms, slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, butchers, veterinarians are at risk of contracting the disease. 

The disease is almost never transmitted person to person. 

To avoid transmission people at risk for infection can be vaccinated. Otherwise, meat consumers are advised to avoid eating it raw. 

What happened in Sabirabad?

Two people with high fever were admitted to the Sabirabad Central Hospital on July 31 writes Azertag. An examination showed that they had anthrax and the patients were taken to Baku.

A few days later one of them – a 60-year-old man – died. The second is currently being treated.

The Food Safety Agency of Azerbaijan has dispatched specialists to Sabirabad, but they have yet to locate the source of the infection.

Since 2014, up to 10 cases of anthrax infection are registered in Azerbaijan per year, however not a single death has been recorded in that time until now.

Seven cases of anthrax have been registered this year in Azerbaijan. 

There are no available statistics up until 2014