What types of anthrax affect humans?
There are three: cutaneous (skin), gastrointestinal and inhalational. Historically, wool sorters at industrial mills were at highest risk, but today anthrax is rare. Only 18 inhalational cases were reported in the United States from 1900 to 1978, with the majority occurring in special-risk groups, including goat hair mill or goatskin workers and wool or tannery workers. Two of the 18 cases were laboratory associated. Cutaneous anthrax is the most common naturally occurring form, with an estimated 2,000 cases reported annually throughout the world. Disease typically follows exposure to infected animals. In the United States, 224 cases of cutaneous anthrax were reported between 1944 and 1994. The largest reported epidemic occurred in Zimbabwe between 1979 and 1985, when more than 10,000 human cases were reported, nearly all of them cutaneous. Gastrointestinal anthrax is rare, but outbreaks have been reported in Africa and Asia, usually caused by eating contaminated meat that hadn’t been
