Editing Anthrax (section)

== History ==
{{See also|List of anthrax outbreaks}}

=== Discovery ===
[[Robert Koch]], a German physician and scientist, first identified the bacterium that caused the anthrax disease in 1875 in [[Wolsztyn|Wollstein]] (now Wolsztyn, Poland).<ref name="pages 277-310"/><ref name="Brock">{{Cite book | veditors = Madigan M, Martinko J |title=Brock Biology of Microorganisms |edition=11th |publisher=Prentice Hall |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-13-144329-7}}</ref> His pioneering work in the late 19th century was one of the first demonstrations that [[Germ theory of disease|diseases could be caused by microbes]]. In a groundbreaking series of experiments, he uncovered the lifecycle and means of transmission of anthrax. His experiments not only helped create an understanding of anthrax but also helped elucidate the role of microbes in causing illness at a time when debates still took place over [[spontaneous generation#Spontaneous generation|spontaneous generation]] versus [[cell theory]]. Koch went on to study the mechanisms of other diseases and won the 1905 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]] for his discovery of the bacterium causing tuberculosis.<ref>{{cite web |title=The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1905 |url=https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1905/summary/ |website=The Nobel Prize |publisher=The Nobel Foundation |access-date=2021-10-04 |archive-date=23 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200523071846/https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/1905/summary/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

Although Koch arguably made the greatest theoretical contribution to understanding anthrax, other researchers were more concerned with the practical questions of how to prevent the disease. In Britain, where anthrax affected workers in the wool, [[worsted]], [[hide (skin)|hide]]s, and [[Tanning (leather)|tanning]] industries, it was viewed with fear. [[John Henry Bell]], a doctor born & based in [[Bradford]], first made the link between the mysterious and deadly "woolsorter's disease" and anthrax, showing in 1878 that they were one and the same.<ref>{{cite journal |title=John Henry Bell, M.D., M.R.C.S|journal=British Medical Journal|date=22 September 1906|pages=735–36|pmc=2382239|volume=2|issue=2386|doi=10.1136/bmj.2.2386.735}}</ref> In the early 20th century, [[Friederich Wilhelm Eurich]], the [[Germans|German]] [[bacteriologist]] who settled in Bradford with his family as a child, carried out important research for the local Anthrax Investigation Board. Eurich also made valuable contributions to a [[Home Office]] Departmental Committee of Inquiry, established in 1913 to address the continuing problem of industrial anthrax.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Industrial Infection by Anthrax|journal=British Medical Journal|date=15 November 1913|page=1338|pmc=2346352|volume=2|issue=2759}}</ref> His work in this capacity, much of it collaboration with the factory inspector [[G. Elmhirst Duckering]], led directly to the [[Anthrax Prevention Act]] (1919).

=== First vaccination ===
{{Further|Anthrax vaccines}}
[[File:Pasteur inoculating sheep against anthrax. Wellcome L0003758.jpg|thumb|200px|Louis Pasteur inoculating sheep against anthrax]]

Anthrax posed a major economic challenge in [[France]] and elsewhere during the 19th century. Horses, cattle, and sheep were particularly vulnerable, and national funds were set aside to investigate the production of a [[vaccine]]. French scientist [[Louis Pasteur]] was charged with the production of a vaccine, following his successful work in developing methods that helped to protect the important wine and silk industries.<ref name="Jones 2010">{{cite book| vauthors = Jones S |title=Death in a Small Package: A Short History of Anthrax|date=2010|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|location=Baltimore}}</ref>

In May 1881, Pasteur – in collaboration with his assistants [[Jean Joseph Henri Toussaint|Jean-Joseph Henri Toussaint]], [[Pierre Paul Émile Roux|Émile Roux]] and others – performed a public experiment at [[Pouilly-le-Fort]] to demonstrate his concept of vaccination. He prepared two groups of 25 [[sheep]], one [[goat]], and several [[cow|cattle]]. The animals of one group were twice injected with an anthrax vaccine prepared by Pasteur, at an interval of 15 days; the control group was left unvaccinated. Thirty days after the first injection, both groups were injected with a culture of live anthrax bacteria. All the animals in the unvaccinated group died, while all of the animals in the vaccinated group survived.<ref>{{cite book | vauthors = Decker J |title=Deadly Diseases and Epidemics, Anthrax |publisher=Chelesa House Publishers |year=2003 |isbn=978-0-7910-7302-5 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/anthraxdeadlydis00jane/page/27 27–28] |url=https://archive.org/details/anthraxdeadlydis00jane/page/27 }}</ref>

After this apparent triumph, which was widely reported in the local, national, and international press, Pasteur made strenuous efforts to export the vaccine beyond France. He used his celebrity status to establish Pasteur Institutes across Europe and Asia, and his nephew, [[Adrien Loir]], travelled to [[Australia]] in 1888 to try to introduce the vaccine to combat anthrax in [[New South Wales]].<ref name="Geison 2014">{{cite book | vauthors = Geison G |title=The Private Science of Louis Pasteur|date=2014|publisher=Princeton University Press}}</ref> Ultimately, the vaccine was unsuccessful in the challenging climate of rural Australia, and it was soon superseded by a more robust version developed by local researchers [[John Gunn (researcher)|John Gunn]] and [[John McGarvie Smith]].<ref name="Stark 2012">{{cite journal| vauthors = Stark J |title=Anthrax and Australia in a Global Context: The International Exchange of Theories and Practices with Britain and France, c. 1850–1920|journal=Health and History|date=2012|volume=14|issue=2|pages=1–25 |doi=10.5401/healthhist.14.2.0001|s2cid=142036883 }}</ref>

The [[Anthrax vaccine adsorbed|human vaccine for anthrax]] became available in 1954. This was a cell-free vaccine instead of the live-cell Pasteur-style vaccine used for veterinary purposes. An improved cell-free vaccine became available in 1970.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/anthrax/downloads/ed-vpd2006-anthrax.ppt | title = Anthrax and Anthrax Vaccine – Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120824060412/http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/vpd-vac/anthrax/downloads/ed-vpd2006-anthrax.ppt | archive-date=24 August 2012 | work = National Immunization Program | publisher = Centers for Disease Control and Prevention | date = January 2006 }}</ref>

=== Engineered strains ===
{{incomplete list|date=April 2018}}
* The Sterne strain of anthrax, named after the [[Trieste]]-born immunologist [[Max Sterne]], is an attenuated strain used as a vaccine, which contains only the [[anthrax toxin]] virulence plasmid and not the polyglutamic acid capsule expressing plasmid.
* [[Strain 836]], created by the Soviet bioweapons program in the 1980s, was later called by the ''[[Los Angeles Times]]'' "the most virulent and vicious strain of anthrax known to man".<ref>{{cite web | vauthors = [[David Willman|Willman D]] | url = https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-jul-01-na-alibek1-story.html | title = Selling the Threat of Bioterrorism | work = [[Los Angeles Times]] | date = 1 July 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | vauthors = [[Annie Jacobsen|Jacobsen A ]] | date = 2015 | title = The Pentagon's Brain: An Uncensored History of DARPA, America's Top Secret Military Research Agency | location = New York | publisher = [[Little, Brown and Company]] | page = 293 }}</ref>
* The virulent [[Ames strain]], which was used in the [[2001 anthrax attacks]] in the United States, has received the most news coverage of any anthrax outbreak. The Ames strain contains two virulence [[plasmids]], which separately encode for a three-protein toxin, called [[anthrax toxin]], and a polyglutamic acid [[bacterial capsule|capsule]].
* Nonetheless, the [[Vollum strain]], developed but never used as a [[biological weapon]] during the [[Second World War]], is much more dangerous. The Vollum (also incorrectly referred to as Vellum) strain was isolated in 1935 from a cow in [[Oxfordshire]]. This same strain was used during the [[Gruinard Island|Gruinard]] bioweapons trials. A variation of Vollum, known as "Vollum 1B", was used during the 1960s in the US and UK bioweapon programs. Vollum 1B is widely believed<ref>{{cite web |url = http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/armyanthraxvictimsblood.html |access-date = 6 August 2009 |title = Army harvested victims' blood to boost anthrax |date = 23 December 2001 | vauthors = Shane S |work = Boston Sun |publisher = UCLA Dept. of Epidemiology site |url-status = live |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091229122543/http://www.ph.ucla.edu/epi/bioter/armyanthraxvictimsblood.html |archive-date = 29 December 2009 |df = dmy-all}}</ref> to have been isolated from William A. Boyles, a 46-year-old scientist at the [[United States Army Biological Warfare Laboratories|US Army Biological Warfare Laboratories]] at [[Fort Detrick|Camp (later Fort) Detrick]], [[Maryland]], who died in 1951 after being accidentally infected with the Vollum strain.