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Bacillus anthracis - Overview

Overview

Definición:

Es un tipo de bacteria aerobia formadora de esporas que causan la enfermedad llamada carbunco.

Información:

El ganado se puede infectar al comer o inhalar esporas del carbunco. Los humanos, en especial los granjeros y las personas que trabajan en los mataderos, pueden padecer el carbunco cutáneo a través de la exposición cutánea con animales infectados.

Los humanos también pueden presentar carbuncosis pulmonar, que puede ser mortal, al inhalar material contaminado con la bacteria.

La infección por carbunco por lo general se diagnostica identificando las bacterias encontradas en las ampollas cutáneas, la sangre u otros líquidos corporales. La prueba de serología para carbunco puede determinar si una persona ha estado previamente expuesta al Bacillus anthracis.

La bacteria del carbunco es un arma biológica potencial. En 2001, las actividades bioterroristas, que involucraron al Servicio Postal de los Estados Unidos, infectaron a 22 personas con carbunco, de las cuales 7 sobrevivientes tuvieron carbunco cutáneo confirmado. Sin embargo, la mayoría de los expertos en bioterrorismo ha concluido que tecnológicamente es difícil utilizar el carbunco en forma efectiva como arma a gran escala.

Ántrax cutáneo

Inhalación de ántrax

Bacillus anthracis

Reviewed last on: 8/28/2009
Linda Vorvick, MD, Medical Director, MEDEX Northwest Division of Physician Assistant Studies, University of Washington School of Medicine; Jatin M. Vyas, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor in Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Assistant in Medicine, Division of Infectious Disease, Department of Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

Referencias

Daly JA. Bioterrorism: Microbiology. In: McPherson RA, Pincus MR. Henry's Clinical Diagnosis and Management by Laboratory Methods. 21st ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Saunders Elsevier; 2006: chap 64.

Reissman DB, Whitney EA, Taylor TH Jr, et al. One-Year Health Assessment of Adult Survivors of Bacillus anthracis Infection. JAMA. 2004;291:1994-1998.

Inglesby TV, O'Toole T, Henderson DA, et al. Anthrax as a Biological Weapon, 2002. JAMA. 2002;287:2236-2252.

Lucey D. Anthrax. In: Mandell GL, Bennett JE, Dolin R. Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases. 6th ed. Philadelphia, Pa: Churchill Livingstone Elsevier; 2005: chap 324.

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