In Chuvashia, a criminal case was initiated on the fact of infection of several residents of the republic with anthrax under Part 1 of Art. 249 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation (violation of veterinary rules, resulting in the negligent widespread spread of infectious diseases or other serious consequences).
According to the press service of the regional Investigative Committee, according to preliminary data, a resident of the village of Staroye Aktashevo of the Tsivilsky municipal district of the Chuvash Republic in his personal subsidiary farm scored a bull infected with anthrax for meat.
"In violation of the current veterinary legislation, the suspect in his personal subsidiary farm did not carry out veterinary measures that ensure the prevention of animal diseases, did not carry out preventive vaccinations and did not provide animals for preventive examination to the veterinarian, including since 2022 he did not vaccinate animals against anthrax. As a result, anthrax infection was received by the suspect's neighbor who participated in the slaughter of the bull, his wife, as well as another resident of the above settlement, "the press release says.
Investigators will have to find out to whom the couple sold the meat, and find it before it hits the shelves. According to media reports, in addition to the slaughtered animal, the couple had another bull and seven sheep.
At the moment, the couple is hospitalized. Two men who helped them left the region for the suburbs. With symptoms of an infectious disease, they were hospitalized in one of the hospitals of Sergiev Posad. However, according to the press service of the Moscow Region Ministry of Health, preliminary tests did not confirm the presence of anthrax. The condition of the patients is satisfactory. The epidemiological investigation was launched by Rospotrebnadzor near Moscow.
- RIA Novosti
- © Taisiya Liskovets
The Ministry of Health of the Chuvash Republic told about the condition of the spouses, whose diagnosis was confirmed.
"The state of health of two patients hospitalized with a diagnosis of anthrax is stable, satisfactory, does not cause concern. Doctors note a positive trend. Treatment continues, the report said. "People who have been in contact with the source of infection are under medical supervision and receive prophylactic treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics."
The department stressed that from person to person the infection is usually not transmitted. You can become infected by contact with a sick animal, through microtrauma on the skin or by eating insufficiently thermally processed meat products.
"Chuvashia has already received 750 doses of anthrax vaccine, which will be used to vaccinate people whose work is associated with an increased risk of infection. These are agricultural workers, workers of livestock farms, slaughterhouses and meat processing plants, tanneries, wool washing factories and workshops for the manufacture of meat-and-bone meal and bone glue, veterinarians," the regional Ministry of Health reported.
After the detection of the virus, all residents of the village of Staroye Aktashevo were quarantined. However, as reported to RT in the administration of the Tsivilsky district, citizens living in the village can enter and leave the village.
"People quietly go to work and come back. Only strangers cannot go there," the administration said.
On the portal of the authorities of the Chuvash Republic, the rules for the period of quarantine have been published. According to the document, residents living in the village are forbidden to move animals susceptible to the virus, import and export them from the settlement, and also their slaughter, harvesting and exporting feed, dissection of corpses and skinning, conducting surgical operations for animals are also prohibited.
On Thursday, March 23, the Minister of Health of the Russian Federation Mikhail Murashko told reporters about the localization of foci of anthrax.
"Several cases a year"
Director of the Research Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Viral Infections, Head of the Herpes Center of the Moscow State University, infectious disease specialist, immunologist-allergist, Candidate of Medical Sciences Georgy Vikulov in an interview with RT said that cases of anthrax are occasionally registered in various regions of Russia.
"Most often in livestock regions: Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, Volgograd and Kursk regions, Bashkiria, Chuvashia, Belgorod, Tambov, Orenburg regions, in some subjects of Siberia. But in the last 25 years, that's three to five cases a year. In 2016, there were many cases due to the fact that there was a mass death of deer. Then 23 people fell ill, of which one died - this is a 12-year-old child, "says Vikulov.
According to him, with timely treatment for help, most patients fully recover and return to normal life.
"The main mechanism of infection is contact: violation of safety precautions when caring for sick animals, at slaughter, cutting animal carcasses, when in contact with wool and waste products. There are cases of infection in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug in 2016 when eating raw deer meat and raw blood of a recently killed deer, Vikulov said. "People do not transmit the disease to other people, infection occurs from sick animals or from waste products."
As the scientist explained, the incubation period of anthrax varies from two to 14 days. According to the infectious disease specialist, 95-98% of all cases of anthrax are a skin form, which is characterized by the appearance of the so-called anthrax carbuncle. It is characterized by black color and red corolla, it is also very typical that they are not accompanied by any pain, the specialist adds.
"At first, it may look like a spot similar to an insect bite, but after a while a bubble begins to form at the site of penetration of the pathogen, and then it turns into a carbuncle. There is a reaction of the lymphatic system, there may be an increase in temperature. There are also cases of damage to the tonsils and pharynx - this is just when eating raw meat and raw blood of deer, "explains Vikulov.