Rag Picker's Disease

By Stuart M. Smith, MD and B. James McCallum, MD

Although these days anthrax is usually thought of as a biological weapon, it is actually more commonly a disease of wool sorters and animal tanners.

Wool and animal skins harbor anthrax spores, which are hard to kill and can remain infectious for over fifty years. They become airborne as the hide or hair is handled and can be inhaled into the lungs, causing an infection. "Pulmonary anthrax" first appears as cold or flu-like symptoms which last for several days, followed by severe (and frequently fatal) respiratory collapse.

If not treated promptly soon after exposure, before symptoms appear, inhaled anthrax has a near 100% mortality.

It is a sneaky disease though, and can attack in a number of ways: eating spores causes a nasty gastrointestinal anthrax and simply handling the spores can give a skin infection. The latter shows up as a boil-like skin lesion that eventually forms an ulcer with a black center but rarely causes death.

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