35 cases of anthrax in quarantined eastern village

Following an anthrax scare in a Turkish village earlier this week, 35 people have now been diagnosed with the virus after eating contaminated meat. The village of Cukurca in the southeastern province of Bingol was quarantined earlier in the week when the virus was discovered in a man who after feeling seriously ill was taken to the emergency room of a local hospital. After being examined by the doctor on duty, the villager was found to be infected with the anthrax virus. Health officials conducted checks on other villagers immediately which resulted in the village being quarantined. Eleven people remain in hospital and a boy, 10, and his sister, 9, are said to be critical condition. However, there have been no deaths reported from the outbreak. The villagers got infected after coming in to contact with infected animals and eating contaminated meat. One villager reportedly told the Anatolian news agency that 85 sheep had died in the last week, but the local vet had told the villagers that the mean was still safe to eat. Authorities were seizing meat from butchers shops and houses and had destroyed several kilos of meat up to now. Anthrax has been reported before in Turkey as the spores are endemic in the country due to the largely agrarian east. Hundreds of cases have been reported in Turkey, although the government and health authorities have said that it is under control and there is not need for panic. Anthrax is ingested by livestock such as cattle, goats and sheep from spored that are in soil.Â