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Anthrax

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Vaccines: A Biography

Abstract

Microbiologists are generally familiar with the statement that anthrax has been well recognized from earliest recorded history. In the absence of any understanding of the microbial aetiology of infectious diseases prior to about the mid-1800s, the belief in the age-old recognition of anthrax has to be based on clinical descriptions in earlier writings commensurate with today’s case definitions of the disease in humans and animals. A detailed review of the reports cited in papers and reviews over the past century as evidence of the ancient history of anthrax is beyond the scope of this chapter but is reviewed elsewhere (Turnbull 2009).

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Acknowledgments

The author is grateful to the following persons: Randall Berrier and Joe Huff, Colorado Serum Co., Denver, CO, for information relating to the U.S. livestock anthrax vaccine; Peter Hambleton, Health Protection Agency, Porton Down, Salisbury, U.K., for checking the manuscript and updating information; Bingxiang Wang, Lanzhou Institute for Biological Products, Lanzhou, PR China, for information on the Chinese livestock anthrax vaccine; Victor Ladnyi, Central Research Institute of Epidemiology, Moscow, Russian Federation, for information on Russian anthrax vaccines; Conrad Quinn and Sean Shadomy, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA, for help with references and updated information on current vaccine programs. Michael Sterne, Southampton, UK, for the kind provision of Fig. 4.2.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Anthrax Reference and Research, Formerly Centre for Applied Microbiology & Research, Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire, SP4 0JQ, UK

    Peter C. B. Turnbull

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  1. Peter C. B. Turnbull
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Correspondence to Peter C. B. Turnbull .

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  1. Dept. Medicine & Community Health, Brown University, Providence, 02912, U.S.A.

    Andrew W. Artenstein

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Turnbull, P.C.B. (2010). Anthrax. In: Artenstein, A. (eds) Vaccines: A Biography. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4419-1108-7_4

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