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Cutaneous anthrax
2025 Case Definition

Cutaneous anthrax
2025 Case Definition
NOTE: A surveillance case definition is a set of uniform criteria used to define a disease for public health surveillance. Surveillance case definitions enable public health officials to classify and count cases consistently across reporting jurisdictions. Surveillance case definitions are not intended to be used by healthcare providers for making a clinical diagnosis or determining how to meet an individual patient’s health needs.

Subtype(s)

  • Anthrax
  • Ingestion anthrax
  • Inhalation anthrax
  • Injection anthrax
  • Welder's anthrax

Clinical Description

Usually begins as a small, painless, pruritic papule on an exposed surface, which progresses through a vesicular stage into a depressed black eschar; the eschar is often surrounded by edema or erythema and may be accompanied by lymphadenopathy. Non-specific symptoms include fever and localized edema.

Related Case Definition(s)

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National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS)

NNDSS receives and shares case data from state, local, and territorial health departments to help public health monitor, control, and prevent serious diseases.

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