Retrospective review of the case of cutaneous anthrax-malignant pustule from 1995 in 15-year old girl.

A 15-year-old girl was admitted to our Department with cutaneous lesion resembling black eschar. Anamnesis revealed that before getting ill she was wearing pullover made of rough sheep's wool and ornaments made of leather like straps. Cutaneous anthrax was confirmed by identification of B. anthracis in specimens from weeping ulceration, culture from black eschar, thermoprecipitation test, and bioassay on guinea pig. The girl was treated with crystalline Penicillin. She responded well to the therapy and recovered after 28 days. What attracts attention in presented case is the fact that the girl didn't belong to high risk group of human anthrax, which might lead to misdiagnosis. In 1990-1999, Poland there were reported 22 cases of anthrax - it was almost exclusively cutaneous form. In the years following 1999 antrax was reported even less often - in the period 1991-2013 it was recorded a total of 26 cutaneous anthrax cases.