A state of emergency has been imposed throughout the region due to the outbreak, the first of its kind since 1941. The outbreak is being blamed on the unusually high temperatures the region has experienced over the past month.
CNN is reporting that temperatures in the Yamal tundra above the Arctic Circle have been ranging up to 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with the normal temperature average of 77 degrees Fahrenheit.
Investigators believe the carcass of a reindeer infected with the anthrax bacillus, and frozen for over 75 years in the tundra, thawed, releasing the bacillus into the reindeer population already weakened by the unusually high temperatures.
About 63 members of the Nenet community have been relocated, their tents and belongings disinfected and their children sent to boarding schools. The Nenets are traditional reindeer herders and their livelihood is dependent on the animals.
In the meantime, officials say a mass vaccination of the reindeer is underway. “It may be too late for many of the animals because anthrax can kill deer within three days of infecting them,” Vladimir Bogdanov, a biology professor at the Russian Academy of Sciences, told the RBC news website.
Bogdanov says that vaccination of the reindeer was stopped about 10 years ago because there had been no outbreaks for over half a century. He says that was a big mistake.
Right now the problem facing officials is how to get rid of the reindeer carcasses, The usual method would be to burn them but this method already imposes severe risks to the tundra, already engulfed in wildfires.
Anthrax has a mortality rate of 25 to 80 percent, depending on the strain. Anthrax has been confirmed by laboratory testing to have caused the reindeer deaths. The 13 people who were hospitalized have not been tested for anthrax but are being treated with antibiotics, as if they did have the disease.
More than likely, this outbreak is gastrointestinal anthrax, caused by eating the meat of an animal infected with the disease. Historically, people in remote regions tend to get one of two types of anthrax, cutaneous or gastrointestinal. In the cutaneous form, anthrax spores get into a cut or abrasion of the skin.
The anthrax bacillus, properly called Bacillus anthracis, can remain dormant in dead bodies for decades, says NBC News. The spores are able to survive in harsh conditions for decades or even centuries. Such spores can be found on all continents, including Antarctica.
