TUNCELI, Turkey, 9 July 2005 — More than two dozen people have been diagnosed with the anthrax infection in eastern Turkey after eating contaminated meat, prompting authorities to quarantine their village, health officials said yesterday. A boy, 10, and his sister, 9, were in critical condition, but there were no reports of deaths among the 27 people who came down with anthrax in Cukurca village in remote Bingol province, an official with the Bingol health department told Reuters.
“Victims fell ill after coming into contact with sick animals,” he said, adding five people remained in hospital two days after the outbreak began. One resident told the state-run Anatolian news agency around 85 sheep and goats had died in Cukurca in the last week, but that the local veterinarian had told villagers it was still safe to eat the meat.
“Veterinarians are now inspecting both live and slaughtered animals for signs of anthrax,” the official said. Authorities were also combing butchers’ shops and private homes and had seized and destroyed several kilograms of contaminated meat, he said. No live animals were being allowed to enter or leave Cukurca. Anthrax is an acute, sometimes deadly, disease caused by spore-forming bacteria. The spores can survive for decades. The spores are endemic in Turkey, especially in the largely agrarian east, where hundreds of people have contracted natural anthrax in recent years after eating or handling infected meat.
Anthrax thrives in grazing livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep, which can ingest the anthrax spores from the soil.
