Gastrointestinal

Gastrointestinal (GI) infection in humans is most often caused by consuming anthrax-infected meat and is characterized by serious GI difficulty, vomiting of blood, severe diarrhea, acute inflammation of the intestinal tract, and loss of appetite.^[16] Lesions have been found in the intestines and in the mouth and throat. After the bacterium invades the bowel system, it spreads through the bloodstream throughout the body, while also continuing to make toxins. GI infections can be treated, but usually result in fatality rates of 25% to 60%, depending upon how soon treatment commences. This form of anthrax is the rarest form. In the United States, only two official cases have occurred, the first reported in 1942 by the CDC and the second reported in 2010 that was treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital.^[17][18][19] It is the only known case of survival from GI anthrax in the United States. An outbreak of anthrax among people who had eaten meat from a dead carabao was reported in Cagayan Province in the Philippines in early 2010, with over 400 cases of illness and at least two fatalities.^[10]