# Can you have Anthrax and not know it?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-have-anthrax-and-not-know-it/86709
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [October 11, 2001, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-have-anthrax-and-not-know-it/86709 "2001-10-11T02:20:35Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Markxxx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Markxxx)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-have-anthrax-and-not-know-it/86709/1 "2001-10-11T02:20:35Z")
With a third person testing positive for anthrax I would like to pose a few questions.
1. Would the other two have gotten it full blown if they hadn’t been treated?
2. Can you be a carrier? In other words pass it but not have it. Like an animal may have it but not be symptomatic then a person kills it and eats it.
3. Is it misdiagnosed? I mean a lot of doctors haven’t seen it before. Could someone die so fast they think, well he was old and it was the flu and they just bury him without another thought to it.
I asked question 1 & 2 as it seems these people didn’t carry enuff of it to get the disease. Wouldn’t also make sense that it was isolated as only people in the building have it (so far anyway). It would seem to make sense then.
I ask question 3 as I recall during the early 80s when the Tylenol scare happened investigators said had not all those people in the same family had died they might not have made the connection.
Maybe it is more comman to have a few spores around than previously thought.
---
### Author:  [@Smeghead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smeghead)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-have-anthrax-and-not-know-it/86709/2 "2001-10-11T03:44:04Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Markxxx \*
> **1) Would the other two have gotten it full blown if they hadn’t been treated?**
Probably. But not definitely.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> 2) Can you be a carrier? In other words pass it but not have it. Like an animal may have it but not be symptomatic then a person kills it and eats it.
> \*\*
No. Anthrax isn’t comminicable - you can’t get it from another person, even if they do have a full-blown case of it.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*
> 3) Is it misdiagnosed? I mean a lot of doctors haven’t seen it before. Could someone die so fast they think, well he was old and it was the flu and they just bury him without another thought to it.\*\*
Mmmm…not sure. Possibly. But I don’t think so. It’s not all _that_ uncommon.
> [@](#):
>
> \*\*Maybe it is more comman to have a few spores around than previously thought. \*\*
Yes, it is. They’re not uncommon in soil, especially around farm animals.
---
### Author:  [@Squink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Squink)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-have-anthrax-and-not-know-it/86709/3 "2001-10-11T04:08:13Z")
Here are the [Anthrax FAQs](http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dbmd/diseaseinfo/anthrax_g.htm) from the CDC.
---
### Author:  [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)
#### Post date: [October 11, 2001, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-you-have-anthrax-and-not-know-it/86709/4 "2001-10-11T05:01:21Z")
There are so many diseases we might have that we don’t know about, I don’t know where you can begin testing for something unless you have a strong indication that you are likely to contract that particular disease.
It’s not as if we are all going to get angiograms every day to see if we are going to drop dead of an aneurysm or have every form of cancer checked for.