[OKC] From MMWR and AP: Woman got anthrax from drumming event

[Miles, Karen]

New Hampshire Woman Diagnosed With Rare Type of Anthrax After Attending 'Drumming Circle'

 
 
CONCORD, N.H. —  A New Hampshire woman diagnosed with a rare gastrointestinal anthrax case may have swallowed spores propelled into the air by vigorous drumming, a state health expert said.
Officials haven't confirmed how the woman contracted the disease but are focusing on a drum circle gathering she attended Dec. 4 at the United Campus Ministry center in Durham shortly before becoming ill. Public health officials who learned of her diagnosis last week immediately began investigating, and earlier this week shut down the ministry center after anthrax spores were found on two drums.
Some health officials believe it's the nation's first case of gastrointestinal anthrax, but the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is unsure.
Dr. Elizabeth Talbot, an adviser to the state's public health division, said one theory is that the woman ingested airborne spores from a drum's animal-hide covering.
"This was a wild type of anthrax that is found ubiquitously in our environment. It can become stirred up or agitated to a place where it briefly suspends in the air, and this patient likely contacted it on her fingers and introduced it into her mouth or inhaled a ... spore into her mouth and then swallowed it," she said.
Two recent U.S. anthrax cases involved African drums covered with animal hides, but those involved spores that were inhaled or entered through the skin.
On Tuesday, officials said spores also were found on an electrical outlet and that antibiotics and vaccines would be offered to about 80 people, including about 60 who attended the drum circle as well as University of New Hampshire students who lived in the building and those who worked there.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581460,00.html#ixzz1VOAEpwKl <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,581460,00.html#ixzz1VOAEpwKl> 
 
Gastrointestinal Anthrax after an Animal-Hide Drumming Event --- New Hampshire and Massachusetts, 2009
Weekly
July 23, 2010 / 59(28);872-877
On December 24, 2009, a woman aged 24 years from New Hampshire was confirmed to have gastrointestinal anthrax on the basis of clinical findings and a Bacillus anthracis blood culture isolate. Her symptoms began on December 5. One day before symptom onset, she had participated in a drumming event at a community organization's building where animal-hide drums of multiple ages and origins were played. This report describes the case and subsequent investigation, which identified 84 persons potentially exposed to anthrax, including those persons at the drumming event and those who lived or worked at the event site. Review of New Hampshire disease surveillance data and clinical microbiology records for periods before and after the event identified no additional anthrax cases. Initial qualitative environmental testing of the event site yielded three positive samples (two from drum heads and one composite sample of three electrical outlets in the main drumming room). Wider, targeted, semi-quantitative environmental testing of the site and additional drums yielded six positive samples (two from one drum and four from environmental locations in the building). These results suggested that aerosolization of spores from drumheads had occurred. All isolates obtained from environmental and drum samples matched the patient's isolate by multiple-locus variable-number tandem repeat analysis using eight loci (MLVA-8). Public health agencies and persons with exposure to animal-hide drums should be aware of the potential, although remote, risk for anthrax exposure associated with these drums.
The patient was a woman aged 24 years from New Hampshire, previously in good health. On December 4, 2009, she participated in a public "drumming circle" inside a community organization's building. These drumming circles typically involved 30--40 persons from the local community sitting in a circle and drumming or dancing. They occurred monthly and lasted approximately 2 hours. Many attendees brought their own drums, although the community organization had dozens of drums stored in the basement for use during these events.
A total of 72 persons attended the December 4 event, and a total of 59 drums were present, including 17 drums that participants brought from home. Volunteers set up drums and prepared a vegetarian meal; participants ate dinner in the main drumming room (Figure <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5928a3.htm#fig> ) before beginning the drumming circle, which lasted 2 hours.
 
MMWR write up of this case of anthrax from drumming continues at this website:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5928a3.htm 
 
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