Those drum circles are fun, except for the (remote) anthrax factor

An interesting report this week on a 2009 case of anthrax after a drumming circle event, from our friends at the government’s Centers for Disease Control and Prevention: The spores were blown up as the drummers pounded away on animal-hide drums.

Though this way of spreading anthrax may sound odd, animals and their hides are well known as a source of anthrax-spore exposure; anthrax infections among livestock are common enough that researchers of the bacterium have even used genetic typing of spores in dirt to map historic cattle-driving trails in the Western United States.

The report is unusual, however, because normally such exposures result either in inhalation anthrax (spores are breathed in, resulting in a dangerous systemic infection) or cutaneous anthrax (anthrax infections in the skin that look nasty but aren’t as dangerous as inhalation anthrax). This case — in contrast — describes the first case of gastrointestinal anthrax after drum exposure: an infection, in other words, that enters the body via the gut. (Here’s a World Health Organization website that explains the various types of anthrax

The infection came to light after a 24-year-old woman became ill with flu-like symptoms the day after participating in a community drumming event in New Hampshire in which scores of people sat around in a circle playing drums of various types for two hours. She sought medical attention a week later, and that’s when the anthrax exposure came to light. Contamination of two of more than 50 of the drums at the event was later confirmed, and spores were found at a few other places at the site also.

The patient spent two months in the hospital but is now doing fine. And the community center has been reopened.

In the agency’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, where the case was published the authors note that “public health agencies should consider that any exposure to animal-hide drums (making drum, playing drums, or participating in drumming events) carries a potential, although remote, risk for anthrax exposure.” They underscore that the risk is rare, so if drum circles are your thing, go for it. (Just not near me, unless you’re handing out earplugs.)