Module 7: Anthrax & Tularemia (Wittum)

Question 1

What category is the following describing?
- Easily spread/ transmitted person-to-person
- High death rates and potential for major public health impact
- Might cause public panic and social disruption
- Require special action for public health preparedness

Answer 1

Category A

Question 2

What category is the following describing?
- Moderately easy to spread
- Result in moderate illness rates and low death rates
- Require specific enhancements of laboratory capacity and disease monitoring

Answer 2

Category B

Question 3

What category is the following describing?
- Easily available
- Easily produced and spread
- Potential for high morbidity and mortality rates and major health impact

Answer 3

Category C

Question 4

List the Category A Pathogens:

Answer 4

• Bacillus anthracis (anthrax)
• Clostridium botulinum toxin (botulism)
• Yersinia pestis (plague)
• Variola major (smallpox) and other related pox viruses
• Francisella tularensis (tularemia)
• Viral hemorrhagic fevers
  - Hantaviruses, Dengue, Ebola

Question 5

Which bioterrorism agent is this describing?
- Aerobic, gram-positive, spore-forming, non-motile rod
- Vegetative cell (larger)
- Spore (smaller)
- Spores grow readily on all ordinary media at 37C
- Vegetative cells -> spores
- Nutrients exhausted
- Few hours outside the body
- Spores live decades

Answer 5

Anthrax (Bacillus anthracis)

Question 6

What are the modes of transmission for Anthrax?

Answer 6

• Broken skin (most common for people)
• Food-borne (ingestion, and most common for livestock)
• Inhalational
• Person-to-person very rare

Question 7

Where is Anthrax most frequently seen?

Answer 7

• Most common in agricultural regions
  - Central and South America
  - Sub-Saharan Africa
  - Central and southwestern Asia
  - Southern and eastern Europe
  - Caribbean

Question 8

What is the most common form of Disease?

Answer 8

Peracute
- Death in < 2 hrs
- Hemorrhages from body orifices
- Incomplete rigor mortis
- Bloat
- Cattle, goats, sheep and antelope

Question 9

Vaccination recommended for all livestock on/near premises with ___________ case

Answer 9

anthrax

Question 10

Which bioterrorism agent is this describing?
- Gram-negative, non-motile bacillus
- Intracellular
- Persists in water, mud, soil, and decaying carcasses for months
- Highly infectious (25 organisms to cause infection)
- Easily killed by heat and disinfectants
- Two major subspecies:
- Type A – more virulent
- Type B – often subclinical

Answer 10

Tularemia (Francisella tularensis)

Question 11

What is the mode of transmission for Tularemia?

Answer 11

Vector-borne

Question 12

(T/F) In Tularemia, ticks are reservoir and vector

Answer 12

True