The Evaluation of Clinical and Laboratory Findings of 63 Inpatient With Cutaneous Anthrax: Characteristics of Cutaneous Anthrax in Turkey

Abstract

Background and Design: Despite a very uncommon disease in developed countries, cutaneous anthrax (CA) is currently endemic in our countries. In this study, we aimed to bring out characteristic of anthrax of Turkey by comparing our results and the other CA reports in Turkey. Materials and Methods: Sixty three inpatients with CA between October 2009 and December 2012 were investigated retrospectively. All patients were diagnosed CA by clinical finding and/or microbiological examination. The demographic characteristics patient, routine tests, wound culture and gram staining results were recorded. Results were recorded on statistical program of SPSS 13.0 and were written using percent (%). Results: There were 63 inpatients (41 female (65.1%), 22 male (34.9%), mean age 35.9 years range10-83). Forty nine patients (77.8%) had a history of contact with animals or animal product. Thirty-eight (60.3%) and twenty-one (33.3%) patients were found in the summer and fall season, respectively. Gram staining and culture were performed in 51 patients. Gram-positive bacilli were detected in 17 patients (33.3%) by gram smear. Bacillus anthracis bacilli were produced in 11 patients (21.5%) in cultures test. The lesions were mostly seen on the left hand (30.2%). Penicillin was most frequently preferred in treatment of CA (87.3%). Conclusion: CA is still endemic in Eastern Anatolia and continues to increase in recent years. Women living in the villages in which income is obtained from buying and selling of animals constitute the most important risk group. Preventive actions such as training of the risky society, vaccination of animals, and obstructing of illegal animal entries across the border, will reduce the incidence of CA.