Jeanne Guillemin
- Published in print:
- 1999
- Published Online:
- May 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520222045
- eISBN:
- 9780520927100
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520222045.003.0002
- Subject:
- Anthropology, Medical Anthropology
This chapter identifies the evidence that helped determine the cause of the anthrax epidemic in Sverdlovsk. It first discusses the “point epidemic” or the large but temporary excess in disease ...
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This chapter identifies the evidence that helped determine the cause of the anthrax epidemic in Sverdlovsk. It first discusses the “point epidemic” or the large but temporary excess in disease frequency, which usually lasts days or months, and next tries to determine, through interviews, what each anthrax victim was doing in 1979, in the days prior to falling ill. The chapter also reveals that it is the toxins produced by the bacteria (and not the bacteria itself) which are lethal.Less
This chapter identifies the evidence that helped determine the cause of the anthrax epidemic in Sverdlovsk. It first discusses the “point epidemic” or the large but temporary excess in disease frequency, which usually lasts days or months, and next tries to determine, through interviews, what each anthrax victim was doing in 1979, in the days prior to falling ill. The chapter also reveals that it is the toxins produced by the bacteria (and not the bacteria itself) which are lethal.
