Anthrax Glossary of Terms

Adjacent: Lying nearby. Related terms include superjacent, subjacent, and circumjacent. From ad-, near + the Latin jacere, to lie = to lie near.

Anthrax : A serious bacterial infection caused by Bacillus anthracis that occurs primarily in animals. Cattle, sheep, horses, mules, and some wild animals are highly susceptible. Humans and swine are generally quite resistant to anthrax. Humans become infected when the spores of B. anthracis enter the body by contact with animals infected with B. anthracis or from contact with contaminated animal products, insect bites, ingestion, or inhalation. Aerosolized ("weaponized") spores of B. anthracis can potentially be used (misused) for biological warfare and bioterrorism. Cutaneous anthrax is the most common form of the disease and is characterized by the development of a localized skin lesion with a central eschar surrounded by marked edema (swelling). Inhalation anthrax (woolsorters' disease) typically involves hemorrhagic mediastinitis (bleeding into the mid-chest), rapidly progressive systemic (bodywide) infection, and carries a very high mortality rate. Gastrointestinal anthrax is much rarer but is also associated with a high mortality rate.
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Bacillus: A large family of bacteria that have a rod-like shape. They include the bacteria that cause food to spoil, and also those responsible for some types of diseases. Helpful members of the bacillus family are used to make antibiotics, or colonize the human intestinal tract and aid with digestion.
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Bacillus anthracis: The bacterium that causes anthrax . Anthrax differs from most bacteria in that they exist in an inactive (dormant) state called spores. The spores are found in soil, animal carcasses and feces (including sheep, goats, cattle, bison, horses, and deer), and animal products (e.g., hides and wool). Some animals (cats, dogs, rats, and swine) are very resistant to anthrax. Remarkably, anthrax spores can remain dormant in soil for many years, perhaps decades. Likened somewhat to eggs that have the ability to hatch, spores can transform (germinate) into active bacteria under appropriate conditions.
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Bacteria: Single-celled microorganisms which can exist either as independent (free-living) organisms or as parasites (dependent upon another organism for life).
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Bacterial: Of or pertaining to bacteria. For example, a bacterial lung infection.

Blood: The familiar red fluid in the body that contains white and red blood cells, platelets, proteins, and other elements. The blood is transported throughout the body by the circulatory system. Blood functions in two directions: arterial and venous. Arterial blood is the means by which oxygen and nutrients are transported to tissues while venous blood is the means by which carbon dioxide and metabolic by-products are transported to the lungs and kidneys, respectively, for removal from the body.

Bowel: Another name for the intestine . The small bowel and the large bowel are the small intestine and large intestine , respectively.
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Chest: The area of the body located between the neck and the abdomen . The chest contains the lungs , the heart and part of the aorta . The walls of the chest are supported by the dorsal vertebrae , the ribs , and the sternum .
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Coma: A state of deep unarousable unconsciousness.
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Cutaneous: Relating to the skin. As, for example, in cutaneous allodynia, a cutaneous papilloma, and cutaneous syndactyly. From the Latin cutis meaning skin.

Diagnosis: 1 The nature of a disease ; the identification of an illness. 2 A conclusion or decision reached by diagnosis. The diagnosis is rabies . 3 The identification of any problem. The diagnosis was a plugged IV.
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Disease: Illness or sickness often characterized by typical patient problems (symptoms) and physical findings (signs). Disruption sequence: The events that occur when a fetus that is developing normally is subjected to a destructive agent such as the rubella (German measles) virus.

Erythromycin: Erythromycin is a common antibiotic for treating bacterial infection. Sold under many brand names, including EES, Erycin and Erythromia.

Eschar: The scab formed when a wound or skin is sealed by the heat of cautery or burning. Also the dark crusted ulcer (tache noire) at the site of the chigger (mite larva) bite in scrub typhus.

Fever : Although a fever technically is any body temperature above the normal of 98.6 degrees F. (37 degrees C.), in practice a person is usually not considered to have a significant fever until the temperature is above 100.4 degrees F (38 degrees C.).
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Flu: Short for influenza. The flu is caused by viruses that infect the respiratory tract which are divided into three types, designated A, B, and C. Most people who get the flu recover completely in 1 to 2 weeks, but some people develop serious and potentially life-threatening medical complications, such as pneumonia. Much of the illness and death caused by influenza can be prevented by annual influenza vaccination.

Gastrointestinal: Adjective referring collectively to the stomach and small and large intestines.
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Headache : A pain in the head with the pain being above the eyes or the ears, behind the head (occipital), or in the back of the upper neck. Headache, like chest pain or back ache, has many causes.
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Health: As officially defined by the World Health Organization, a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being, not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

Hemorrhage: Bleeding or the abnormal flow of blood.
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Incubation period: In medicine, the time from the moment of exposure to an infectious agent until signs and symptoms of the disease appear. For example, the incubation period of chickenpox is 14-16 days.
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Infection: The growth of a parasitic organism within the body. (A parasitic organism is one that lives on or in another organism and draws its nourishment therefrom.) A person with an infection has another organism (a "germ") growing within him, drawing its nourishment from the person.
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Influenza: The flu is caused by viruses that infect the respiratory tract which are divided into three types, designated A, B, and C. Most people who get the flu recover completely in 1 to 2 weeks, but some people develop serious and potentially life-threatening medical complications, such as pneumonia. Much of the illness and death caused by influenza can be prevented by annual influenza vaccination.

Intestine: The long, tubelike organ in the abdomen that completes the process of digestion. It consists of the small and large intestines.

Laboratory: A place for doing tests and research procedures and preparing chemicals, etc. Although "laboratory" looks very like the Latin "laboratorium" (a place to labor, a work place), the word "laboratory" came from the Latin "elaborare" (to work out, as a problem, and with great pains), as evidenced by the Old English spelling "elaboratory" designating "a place where learned effort was applied to the solution of scientific problems."
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Lungs: The lungs are a pair of breathing organs located with the chest which remove carbon dioxide from and bring oxygen to the blood. There is a right and left lung.

Lymph: An almost colorless fluid that travels through vessels called lymphatics in the lymphatic system and carries cells that help fight infection and disease.

Microscope: An optical instrument that augments the power of the eye to see small objects. The name microscope was coined by Johannes Faber (1574-1629) who in 1628 borrowed from the Greek to combined micro-, small with skopein, to view. Although the first microscopes were simple microscopes, most (if not all) optical microscopes today are compound microscopes.

Muscle: Muscle is the tissue of the body which primarily functions as a source of power. There are three types of muscle in the body. Muscle which is responsible for moving extremities and external areas of the body is called "skeletal muscle." Heart muscle is called "cardiac muscle." Muscle that is in the walls of arteries and bowel is called "smooth muscle."

Nausea: Nausea is the urge to vomit. It can be brought by many causes including, systemic illnesses, such as influenza, medications, pain, and inner ear disease.

Necrosis: The death of living cells or tissues. Necrosis can be due, for example, to ischemia (lack of blood flow). From the Greek "nekros" (dead body).

Pain: An unpleasant sensation that can range from mild, localized discomfort to agony. Pain has both physical and emotional components. The physical part of pain results from nerve stimulation. Pain may be contained to a discrete area, as in an injury, or it can be more diffuse, as in disorders like fibromyalgia . Pain is mediated by specific nerve fibers that carry the pain impulses to the brain where their conscious appreciation may be modified by many factors.
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Penicillin : The most famous of all antibiotics, named for the fungal mold Penicillium notatum from which it is derived. Penicillin acts by destroying the cell wall of bacteria .
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Pharynx: The hollow tube about 5 inches long that starts behind the nose and ends at the top of the trachea (windpipe) and esophagus (the tube that goes to the stomach).

Public health: The approach to medicine that is concerned with the health of the community as a whole. Public health is community health. It has been said that: "Health care is vital to all of us some of the time, but public health is vital to all of us all of the time."
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Pulmonary: Having to do with the lungs. (The word comes from the Latin pulmo for lung).

Respiratory: Having to do with respiration, the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide. From the Latin re- (again) + spirare (to breathe) = to breathe again.

Rod: A type of specialized light-sensitive cell (photoreceptor) in the retina of the eye that provides side vision and the ability to see objects in dim light (night vision).
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Septicemia: Systemic (bodywide) illness with toxicity due to invasion of the bloodstream by virulent bacteria coming from a local seat of infection. The symptoms of chills, fever and exhaustion are caused by the bacteria and substances they produce. The disorder is treated with massive doses of antibiotics. Also known as blood poisoning.
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Shock: In medicine, shock is a critical condition brought on by a sudden drop in blood flow through the body. There is failure of the circulatory system to maintain adequate blood flow. This sharply curtails the delivery of oxygen and nutrients to vital organs. It also compromises the kidney and so curtails the removal of wastes from the body. Shock can be due to a number of different mechanisms including not enough blood volume (hypovolemic shock) and not enough output of blood by the heart (cardiogenic shock). The signs and symptoms of shock include low blood pressure (hypotension), overbreathing (hyperventilation), a weak rapid pulse, cold clammy grayish-bluish (cyanotic) skin, decreased urine flow (oliguria), and mental changes (a sense of great anxiety and foreboding, confusion and, sometimes, combativeness).
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Skin: The skin is the body's outer covering. It protects us against heat and light, injury, and infection. It regulates body temperature and stores water, fat, and vitamin D. Weighing about 6 pounds, the skin is the body's largest organ. It is made up of two main layers; the outer epidermis and the inner dermis.

Sputum: The mucus and other matter brought up from the lungs, bronchi, and trachea that one may cough up and spit out or swallow. The word "sputum" is borrowed directly from the Latin "to spit." Called also expectoration.

Tetracycline: A family of broad-spectrum antibiotics effective against a remarkably wide variety of organisms. Bacteria susceptible to teracycline include H. flu (Hemophilus influenzae), strep (Streptococcus pneumoniae), Mycoplasma pneumoniae, Chlamydia psittaci, Chlamydia trachomatis , and Neisseria gonorrhoeae (the cause of gonorrhea ). Tetracycline is also used to treat nongonococcal urethritis (due to Ureaplasma), Rocky mountain spotted fever , typhus , chancroid , cholera , brucellosis , anthrax , and syphilis . It is used in combination with other medications to treat Helicobacter pylori , the bacteria associated with ulcers of the stomach and duodenum .
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Therapy: The treatment of disease .
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Throat: The throat is the anterior (front) portion of the neck beginning at the back of the mouth , consisting anatomically of the pharynx and larynx . The throat contains the trachea and a portion of the esophagus .
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Tissue: A tissue in medicine is not like a piece of tissue paper. It is a broad term that is applied to any group of cells that perform specific functions. A tissue in medicine need not form a layer. Thus,

• The bone marrow is a tissue;
• Connective tissue consists of cells that make up fibers in the framework supporting other body tissues; and
• Lymphoid tissue is the part of the body's immune system that helps protect it from bacteria and other foreign entities.

Toxicity: The degree to which a substance can harm humans or animals.
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Toxin: One of a number of poisons produced by certain plants, animals, and bacteria.
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Ulcer: An area of tissue erosion, for example, of the skin or lining of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Due to the erosion, an ulcer is concave. It is always depressed below the level of the surrounding tissue.
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Viable: Capable of life. For example, a viable premature baby is one who is able to survive outside the womb.

From the Doctors at MedicineNet.com

Chest X-ray - A chest x-ray is a radiology test that involves exposing the chest briefly to radiation to produce an image of the chest and the internal organs of the chest. chest x-ray can be used to define abnormalities of the lungs such as excessive fluid, pneumonia, bronchitis, asthma, cysts, and cancers. Source:MedicineNet Healthcare Issues - Healthcare Issues Center: Read doctor's views, health features, procedures & tests, diseases and conditions and health news on MedicineNet.com. Source:MedicineNet Read 55 more Anthrax related articles ... Researchers Pursuing Nasal Anthrax Vaccine Many States Still Fall Short in Emergency Preparedness: Report