Epidemiology of Anthrax in North Dakota

N spite of knowledge developed by classical studies, cases of human anthrax continue to occur in the United States. Because of relative rarity and high fatality rate they receive widespread attention in the press and occasion considerable anxiety to the affected locality. That the menace, though not great, is still none the less real, would appear from collected information 4 5, 6, 10 and from recent. experience in North Dakota. In the United States human anthrax has been considered primarily an industrial disease. It has been most frequently contracted from handling infected animals, skins or hair. Smyth 3 in a recent study of the sources of infection in 724 cases of human anthrax between 1919 and 1927, showed that the largest number occurred in the tanning industry, followed by the wool industry, cattle, shaving brushes, hair, and fur. The number of human cases of anthrax reported to the U. S. Public Health Service from 1920 to 1938, inclusive, was 1,749.2 The number of deaths attributed to this cause by the Bureau of the Census from 1920 to 1937, inclusive, is 391 (see Table 1). The indicated fatality rate based upon