At least 26 people including two children have contracted Anthrax disease in a Sirajgang village, the district’s civil surgeon has said.
Dr Nurul Islam Talukder told bdnews24.com on Thursday that those people got sick after consuming beef and coming close to cows at Chithhulia under Kayempur of Shahjadpur Upazila.
They are four-year-old ‘Hridoy’, six-year-old ‘Aleya’ Saleha Begum, Maleka Khatun, Shah Alam, Mozammel Huq, Helal Sarker, Monsur Khandaker, Jahanara Khatun, Ranjida Khatun, Anija Khatun, Helena Khatun, Babu Sarker, ‘Jalil’, ‘Jahangir’, ‘Rahmatullah’, ‘Nawshad’, ‘Nazrul’, ‘Salam’, ‘Sonaullah’, ‘Asanur’, ‘Rafiqul’, ‘Kabir’, ‘Nayan’ and ‘Ramjan’.
A team of the civil surgeon office led by Dr Shariful Islam and district sanitary inspector Ramchandra Saha on Thursday morning visited the village and confirmed the infection.
Ramchandra said on July 29, a buffalo of Abdus Salam and a cow of Shah Alam — both of which had contracted anthrax — were slaughtered and their meat was sold off to villagers. It is assumed that those who have contracted anthrax had come in close contact with those animals or consumed their meat.
All the patients’ bodies have swollen and they complained of severe pain. They have also developed lesions on their bodies.
Anthrax is an acute disease caused by bacteria. Most forms of the disease are lethal, and it affects both humans and other animals. There are effective vaccines against anthrax, and some forms of the disease respond well to antibiotic treatment.
Experts team from the Dhaka’s institute of Epidemiology Disease Control and Research (IDCR) and International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research, Bangladesh (ICDDR,B) have already reached Sirajganj, the civil surgeon said.
“They will visit the village on Friday morning,” he added.
Public announcements will made from Friday to alert the villagers, he said.
