Siberian Heatwave Sparks Anthrax Outbreak, Killing A Child And Thousands Of Reindeer

At least one child has died in Siberia after an outbreak of naturally occurring anthrax, which has been linked to a decades-old reindeer carcass exposed during a heatwave. Russian officials have said the death of a 12-year-old boy, a member of a reindeer-herding family from the Yamal tundra 1,300 miles north of Moscow, was the first fatality in Siberia linked to the pathogen since 1941. Twenty others have been diagnosed with anthrax, according to CBS. The region’s governor, Dmitry Kobylkin, linked the outbreak to a massive temperature spike in the region that has melted the permafrost ― a thick layer of soil and organic matter frozen year-round in the coldest areas of the planet. Unusually hot weather has seen temperatures hover close to 95 degrees Fahrenheit for more than a month in parts of the tundra. “I have no words to express my feelings,” Kobylkin told Agency France-Presse. “The infection showed its cunning. Returning after 75 years, it took away a child’s life.” Officials began investigating the outbreak in late June after reindeer began dying en masse. The anthrax outbreak was later linked to a 75-year-old carcass that had thawed with the permafrost, releasing dormant bacteria spores that infected other animals. More than 2,300 reindeer have succumbed to the pathogen since the outbreak began, according to the Siberian Times. Healthy animals in the herd, which numbers more than 200,000, are being vaccinated, and the governmen...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news