A terrible disease reared its ugly head in a small Hungarian town. People are afraid of contracting anthrax following the case of a married couple who got sick from eating the meat of a sick animal.
Last week, it turned out that a family slaughtered a sick cattle, yet they produced its meat like usual – reports Blikk. The dead meat was infected with anthrax, and the couple showed symptoms very soon after consuming the disease-ridden meat. They are still in the hospital.
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A woman who knows the family said the following: “They have been involved in livestock farming for a long time; we often bought meat from them. About two weeks ago, I met one of them at the doctor’s, but they did not say what the problem was.
After learning the news, I can only hope no one else got infected.”
Anthrax is a very dangerous disease for humans. It attacks the body through the skin.
Not long ago, people in hazmat suits had to sterilise the farm, in a rather sci-fi-like fashion. However, the animals were not removed; you can still see cattle roaming about the farm.
One of the family’s neighbours added that the sick cattle did not even belong to them.
The family bought it from two guys when it was presumably already affected by the disease.
According to an expert on epidemiology, Lajos Ócsai, those who came in contact with the contaminated meat are in severe danger. The spores of the anthrax bacterium infect someone while they are chopping up the contaminated meat, for example. When the skin meets the pathogen, a vivid red furuncle appears. This is actually the ideal scenario, as you would immediately go to the doctor due to the highly visible, painful and rather scary symptom.
However, Ócsai added that “Since anthrax is usually contracted during illegal meat production, they might want to hide the fact that they were involved in such activities during a visit to the doctor’s, so the possibility of anthrax might not occur to the healthcare professional.
And if anthrax enters the bloodstream, it can actually be fatal.
It is enough to later come in contact with the knife used for cutting the contaminated meat to contract intestinal anthrax, which can also cause death.”
However, it is very rare that the disease would spread from human to human.
Anthrax can also enter the body by inhalation, causing pulmonary anthrax. At first, the symptoms are similar to that of the flu; however, in just a few days, it can lead to respiratory arrest. The disease can lurk for a few days, but antibiotics only work if taken after just a few hours.
If ingested through contaminated meat, the disease causes bloody stool and vomit. On the skin, it presents as a shiny red rash, at the centre of which a boil appears full of pus in just a few days.
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