Pulmonary anthrax caused by contaminated sacks

Abstract

A 54-year-old Jamaican employed as a grinding machine operator developed pulmonary anthrax and died within two days. In the eight days before his illness he had been grinding sterilized bone charcoal delivered in second-hand sacks, some of which had been used to import the raw bone before its sterilization. Bacillus anthracis was isolated from four out of six sacks examined and is considered to have been the source of the infection.