(Host) Antibiotics and vaccines are being offered to about 80 people as New Hampshire authorities continue to investigate the nation’s first known case of gastrointestinal anthrax.
Officials still don’t know how the woman contracted the disease but are focusing on a drum playing gathering she attended last month. Anthrax spores have been found on two drums and an electrical outlet at the United Campus Ministry center in Durham, prompting officials to shut down the building and offer vaccines and antibiotics to those who attended the drum circle or live or work in the building.
Dr. Elizabeth Talbot, an adviser to the state’s public health division, says one theory is that vigorous drum playing sent the spores into the air, and the woman then swallowed them.