How common is inhalation anthrax?
So rare as to be almost nonexistent. But it has been chronicled since biblical times. Only 18 Americans contracted the desease in the 20th century. Thirteen of these worked in goat hair factories, where studies showed they breathed large amounts of the spores day in and day out. Yet thousands and thousands of fellow workers never got sick. Two of the other victims worked in laboratories, where bacterial concentrations were likely high. The last case — before Robert Stevens — was reported in 1978, according to The Journal of the American Medical Association.
