Man dies after inhaling anthrax

A drum maker who inhaled anthrax spores while handling imported animal skins at his workshop has died in hospital.

Fernando Gomez, 35, from Hackney in east London, had been in the intensive care unit of Homerton University Hospital for more than a week.

A hospital spokesman confirmed he died from inhalation anthrax not cutaneous anthrax and said his family were with him when he died.

bbc news

I remembered reading an article when he was admitted to hospital after contracting anthrax from the animal skin on his drum. Now he has died. He is a drum maker and was handling animal skins at the time he contracted the anthrax. I wonder if animal rights activists are going to be blamed for this now? If they are behind it at all. Is it conceivable that animal rights activitsts be setup? This happening not long after the article claiming trouble makers would not be allowed in the UK and 'violent' animal activists were mentioned. Are animal rights activists violent in the UK?

[edit on 11/2/2008 by BindareDundat]

I doubt it, it is extremely rare, but anthrax can be transmitted through animal skins:

Animal hides pose a low risk of cutaneous (skin) anthrax, and an extremely low risk of inhalation anthrax. Exotic animal hides may pose a higher risk for exposure than domestic (U.S.-origin) hides. The risk of contracting Bacillus anthracis from handling individual hides is believed to be very low; however, the industrial processing of hides or hair has historically been associated with increased risk of anthrax. Such industrial handling of large numbers of hides or hair from multiple animals results in prolonged direct contact with contaminated materials, often in enclosed or poorly ventilated settings. Among the 236 cases of anthrax reported to CDC from 1955 to 1999, 153 (65%) were associated with industrial handling of animal hide or hair. Only 9 of the 153 cases (6%) associated with industrial handling of hair or hide were inhalation anthrax.

www.bt.cdc.gov...

reply to post by asmeone2


Interesting. I never knew that. Learn something new every day. Thanks asmeone2!

YOu're welcome. That was a new tidbit for me too! Ah, the power of Google...