YEREVAN, August 4. /TASS/. Two anthrax cases have been reported from Armenia as the diagnosis was confirmed in two residents of a small village of Artamet, the ministry of health said on Tuesday.
"The diagnosis has been preliminarily confirmed. Medics say the two patients are in condition of moderate gravity," the ministry’s spokesperson, Anait Aityan, told TASS. "The final diagnosis will be available after laboratory tests."
One of the patients supposedly bought infected meat in Georgia in late July.
Anthrax is a bacterial infection caused by the organism Bacillus anthracis. It can be found in grass-eating wild and domestic animals, such as cows and sheep, most often in the agricultural regions of Asia, Africa, South America and parts of Europe (southern and eastern). Diseased animals can spread anthrax to humans, either by direct contact (e.g., inoculation of infected blood to broken skin) or by consumption of a diseased animal's flesh. Anthrax does not spread directly from one infected animal or person to another; it is spread by spores. These spores can be transported by clothing or shoes. There are effective vaccines against anthrax, and some forms of the disease respond well to antibiotic treatment.