Danbury (WTNH)_ Two people in Danbury have been infected with Anthrax contracted from animal skins.
Officials say Ase-AmenRa Kariamu contracted 'cutaneous anthrax' from animals skins brought from Africa to make a drum. Kariamu makes and restores drums made of animal hides.
"In most cases cutaneous anthrax, even inhalation anthrax in the United States comes from actually handling animal hides," said Dr. James Hadler, Connecticut Department of Public Health.
Danbury Police Captain Robert Myles told News Channel 8 a member of the victim's family also contracted the disease from contact with the anthrax bacteria.
In a live interview on News Channel 8 @ Noon, Mayor Mark Boughton said it is "not possible" for anyone to catch anthrax from this man.
"This kind of anthrax is what's called 'cutaneous anthrax', it is not known to spread from person to person," said Boughton.
Health officials say cutaneous anthrax is not contagious and can usually be treated with antibiotics. Both people are out of the hospital and expected to make a full recovery.
Police closed off an area located on Route 37 near the intersection of Pembrooke and Padanaram Roads. Emergency crews at the scene are wearing protective suits and a decontamination unit has been set up outside the home.
The FBI says it's aware of the situation, but says it is not a case of terrorism.
"We are taking the precautionary measures to make sure that the public health is protected by making sure any contaminated hides are removed from the location," Boughton said.
None of his neighbors have been evacuated, but some are considering leaving the area for now.
"We have a home in Rhode Island, I told my wife, why don't we spend the weekend there? Take off," said Dom Generali, neighbor.
Posted by: Inspector
I recently had to take some training on dealing with outbreaks of disease with emphasis on bird flu. Some of the stuff we may have to do in the event of an outbreak is pretty scary. Anyone else take this training?
Posted by: DeputyFife
Published: 09/06/2007
Officials: Man caught anthrax from drums, no terrorism suspected
Associated Press
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) - An African musician and a family member both contracted a non-contagious form of anthrax, apparently from imported animal skins used to make drums, officials said yesterday.
Mayor Mark Boughton described one of the individuals as a renowned African drummer and drum maker who stored untanned animal hides obtained from areas of the world where anthrax is common.
A spokesman for the state Department of Public Health, Bill Gerrish, said a second member of the same family also had the disease. Both apparently had the cutaneous form of anthrax, which is not contagious and can usually be treated with antibiotics.
Cutaneous anthrax, the most common form of infection by the bacteria, can cause reddening and swelling of the skin. There usually are only one to two cases per year in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
FBI agents were notified of the situation but state public health officials were handling the investigation, said Marybeth Miklos, a spokeswoman for the FBI's New Haven field office. "We are aware of it, but as of right now it is not anything terrorism-related," Miklos said.
State officials said the hides were part of a recent shipment believed to be from Africa. The FBI and U.S. Department of Agriculture were working to determine whether hides from the same shipment had been sent elsewhere in the country.
The state Department of Public Health took custody of about a dozen hides that had been stored in a shed on the man's property. State and federal environmental officials will spend the next several days making sure no anthrax spores remain.
The owner of the home, Donald Lombardo, identified the tenant as Ase-AmenRa Kariamu and said he has not seen Kariamu for several weeks. Kariamu is the director of the West Afrikan Drumming program at the Danbury Music Centre. His private phone number is unpublished. Messages seeking comment were left for him at the Music Centre. The drums at his home were not finished, so officials said anthrax would not have spread beyond the shed where he worked. That did not stop dozens of people who feared they might have come into contact with infected drums from calling or visiting Danbury Hospital yesterday.
"There's not an issue of public health here we have to be concerned about," Boughton said at a press conference yesterday afternoon.
Dr. Gary Schleiter, chief of infectious diseases at Danbury Hospital, said the man went to his doctor a few weeks ago with what looked like a scab on his arm. When it didn't get better, he went to the hospital, where extensive state lab tests confirmed late Monday that the man had anthrax.
The other family member, who was not identified, went to a pediatrician because of a similar spot.
Both are fine now, and Schleiter said there was an 80 percent chance they would have gotten better without treatment.
In a similar case in February 2006, a New York City man contracted anthrax while handling drums he had covered with goat skin he brought from Ivory Coast. Health officials believe he inhaled anthrax spores while making the instruments.
Inhalation anthrax from natural sources is rare. It infects the lungs and kills about 75 percent of victims, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of Health.
One group of anthrax cases linked to terrorism occurred a few weeks after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Five people were killed and 17 sickened by anthrax that was mailed to lawmakers on Capitol Hill and members of the news media in New York and Florida. There have been no convictions in that case.
The victims included a Connecticut woman, Ottilie Lundgren, 94, who died after opening anthrax-contaminated mail that passed through a Connecticut distribution center.
The last U.S. case of inhalation anthrax not linked to terrorism occurred in 1976.
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