People who work with animals or animal products in these areas are at risk of acquiring the disease. Fortunately, because the disease does not spread directly from person to person, human epidemics rarely occur naturally. Antibiotics usually cure anthrax of the skin. Anthrax from food or water is difficult to diagnose because it looks like other stomach or intestinal illnesses. This anthrax is harder to treat, and about half the people who get it will die.
Airborne anthrax is the worst form.
People cannot smell, see, or taste anthrax contamination in air, but almost all people who inhale it will die within about one week. Rarely will a person know of exposure before any symptoms appear, and then antibiotic treatment is likely too late to be effective. The deadliness of airborne anthrax is only one reason it could be such an effective biological weapon. The bacteria can survive for decades because they form a protective coating called a spore, which allows them to live 40 years or more in various environmental conditions. Airborne distribution can easily spread anthrax spores over large areas.