Infections in humans are most often associated with the handling of infected animal carcasses or hides. These are diseases you may have heard of by the names of "Wool sorter's disease" and "Tanners Disease", which can be contracted by inhaling the spores released by the processing of the fleeces or hides of infected animals. .
There are three kinds of Anthrax disease: Cultaneous, inhalational, and gastrointestinal. The specific kind of anthrax disease is directly related to how it was caught. Cultaneous anthrax means that it is caught through cuts or abrasions on the skin, and usually results in local and systemic infection. This form of the disease is not as deadly as the other forms of it, but if untreated, the death rate can reach approximately twenty percent, and is less than one percent in treated cases. .
Inhalational anthrax is a lot more uncommon in humans and animals, but is perhaps ten times as deadly. This type of anthrax is caught by inhaling the spores, though it does not multiply in the lungs, but travels to the mediastinal lymph nodes (the lymph nodes located in the cavity between the lungs) where the spores germinate. From this point the bacterium multiplies and spreads rapidly throughout the body. The first stage of symptoms are insidious and are very flu like: muscle aches, fever, and a sore throat are common. Rapid reproduction among the bacterium, make it a faster acting sickness, and usually the severity of these symptoms progress to respiratory failure and shock with meningitis frequently developing. .
The third type of anthrax disease is called Gastrointestinal anthrax. It is given its name because it is contracted by eating foods (usually raw or under-cooked meat) that is infected with anthrax, and results in gastrointestinal infection. Gastrointestinal infection is associated with severe abdominal pain/discomfort and is followed by a high fever, nausea, loss of appetite, vomiting, and/or diarrhea.