Anthrax infection in an intravenous drug user

Bannard‐Smith, Jonathan; Carroll, Ian; Nichani, Raj; Sharma, Ruchi

doi:10.1007/s00134-012-2772-0

Cited by 3 publications

(7 citation statements)

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“…A small number of injectional anthrax patients presented with signs of progressive systemic infection and meningitis. This was described in one case report of a patient with prolonged headache, confusion and coma [23]. This case and four more cases were diagnosed with intracranial or subarachnoid haemorrhage [8], and from available data, at least four of these five cases deteriorated rapidly and later died [23,24].…”

Section: Gastrointestinal Respiratory and Neurological Symptomsmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…To date, no person-to-person transmission was documented in injectional anthrax cases. There seems to be no risk for health workers or for the general population [4,6,8,10,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24][25][26].…”

Section: Course Of Events and Epidemiological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

“…None of the published cases showed the typical signs of cutaneous anthrax -a black crusted painless lesion, known as eschar [4,6,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]25]. According to the HPS report, only one confirmed case presented with eschar formation [8].…”

Section: Injection Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

“…This was documented in three of the reported cases [17,19]. Patients lacking signs of soft tissue infection, who presented with other signs of systemic infection, meningitis or peritonitis were usually misdiagnosed and rapidly deteriorated due to lack of appropriate treatment [21,23,24] (Table 3).…”

Section: Clinical Course and Complicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Injectional anthrax - new presentation of an old disease

2014

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Section: Gastrointestinal Respiratory and Neurological Symptomsmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Course Of Events and Epidemiological Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Injection Sitementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Clinical Course and Complicationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Injectional anthrax - new presentation of an old disease

2014

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“…Since June 2012 sporadic IA has occurred both in the UK and elsewhere in Europe [4]. IA has several recognized clinical manifestations [3,[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Confirmed IA has a mortality rate of 28% [3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Injectional anthrax at a Scottish district general hospital

et al. 2014

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This retrospective, descriptive case-series reviews the clinical presentations and significant laboratory findings of patients diagnosed with and treated for injectional anthrax (IA) since December 2009 at Monklands Hospital in Central Scotland and represents the largest series of IA cases to be described from a single location. Twenty-one patients who fulfilled National Anthrax Control Team standardized case definitions of confirmed, probable or possible IA are reported. All cases survived and none required limb amputation in contrast to an overall mortality of 28% being experienced for this condition in Scotland. We document the spectrum of presentations of soft tissue infection ranging from mild cases which were managed predominantly with oral antibiotics to severe cases with significant oedema, organ failure and coagulopathy. We describe the surgical management, intensive care management and antibiotic management including the first description of daptomycin being used to treat human anthrax. It is noted that some people who had injected heroin infected with Bacillus anthracis did not develop evidence of IA. Also highlighted are biochemical and haematological parameters which proved useful in identifying deteriorating patients who required greater levels of support and surgical debridement.

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