BEIJING – A herdsman has died after contracting anthrax from eating beef in a rare occurrence of the acutely infectious disease in humans in China, local health officials said yesterday.
The man, a Tibetan named Sangdan, died on June 11, seven days after coming into contact with the infected animal in Maqu county in north-west Gansu province.
‘The man ate the meat of the diseased cow and later sold the skin and got infected,’ said Maqu county health bureau official Ma Shuyan.
‘I can confirm that he died on June 11 from anthrax.’
Thirty-five people who came into contact with him have been quarantined, the infected area has been isolated and cattle markets have been closed, the China News Service reported.
‘We checked all cows that had contact with the diseased cow and none was infected,’ said the official. ‘We didn’t slaughter them, we just vaccinated them. We have burned the skin and the other leftovers of the cow.’
Anthrax is an acute infectious disease that typically affects livestock but which may be transmitted to humans through exposure to infected animals, either through handling or eating infected meat.
It causes fever and breathing difficulties. Animals are usually infected through contact with soil containing anthrax spores.
While China’s Ministry of Agriculture refused to comment, statistics on its website show a handful of anthrax cases in livestock around the country every year.
There is no record on the disease being passed on to humans before.
