BIOTERRORISM: Anthrax in Bangladesh

25 August 2010 (IRIN) - Health officials in Bangladesh are downplaying a recent outbreak of anthrax [http://www.who.int/csr/disease/Anthrax/en/index.html] in the two northern districts of Pabna and Sirajganj. "There is nothing to be worried about at the moment," Mahmudur Rahman, director of the country's Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), told IRIN on 25 August in Dhaka, citing government efforts to treat those infected, raise awareness and vaccinate cattle. "There is no scope for the outbreak to get worse," said M. K. Zaman Biswas, focal point for Communicable Diseases Surveillance for the World Health Organization, but there was no reason "to be concerned or panicky". According to the IEDCR, since the first case was reported on 19 August, 127 people have been infected with the potentially lethal anthrax bacterium that occurs naturally in the soil and commonly infects livestock which ingest or inhale its spores while grazing. The first human case occurred when a diseased cow was slaughtered and eaten by local residents in northern Bangladesh.