Anthrax Outbreak In Siberia Left 13 In Hospital: 75-Year-Old Reindeer Corpse Blamed

The increasing temperatures hit Russia's Yamal tundra, and provinces got 10 degrees Farenheit warmer than normal. In the fields are large bubbles of vegetations that appeared above the melting permafrost, and pockets of methane and water appeared.

Anthrax outbreak in Siberia blamed on 75-year-old reindeer corpse https://t.co/U3oE79S2ws

— The Independent (@Independent) July 31, 2016

The warm temperature that caused the layer of frozen soil to thaw was suspected to be the one that unleashed the bacteria - scientists believed that the melting unearthed the carcass of a reindeer that died in the last anthrax outbreak in 1968.

However, one of the more unusual symptoms of unseasonable warmth is a dormant bacteria that has recently become active. For the first time since 1941, anthrax struck the area, initially taking on 13 Yamal nomads, four of whom are children. According to the Independent UK, the toll is worse on wildlife, claiming around 1,500 reindeer beginning Sunday.

However, numbers have been rising, and according to Vice News, the number of people hospitalized has since increased, numbering 40 in all. Governor Dmitry Kobylkin has already declared a state of emergency and evacuated the communities that have been quarantined and is most at risk of infection, such as the nomadic reindeer herders.

Anna Popva, the state sanitary doctor in Russia told CNN that there is a possibility the quarantine could last until September. To ensure safety of everyone else in the area, a mass vaccination for the reindeer is also underway.

Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu already deployed special biological warfare troops from the Chemical Radioactive and Bilogical Protection Corps, and the troops have been carrying out lab tests and working to sidpose of the infected animal carcasses properly.

Anthrax, a highly contagious disease, is caused by a bacteria and can be caught through breathing spores and by eating infected material, even through contact with broken skin. The most virulent forms have seen anthrax being weaponzied in 2001, when offices of media outlets and two US Senators were sent letters containing said spores in an outbreak that killed five people and infected 17 others.