Axehole

Authorities in Scotland are racing against the clock to locate more than 30 people feared to be at risk from anthrax after they attended the wake of a man who apparently died from the disease.

Pascal Norris, an artist and musical instrument-maker, died in Edinburgh Royal Infirmary on 8 July. He had been using untreated animal skins to make drum heads, and public-health officials believe these skins are the most likely source of the infection.

Friends said Norris had been using roadkill badgers to get skin for the drum heads because, as a vegetarian and a Buddhist, he would not have wanted to buy skins from a commercial supplier.

Ten friends of 50-year-old Pascal Norris - believed to be the first person in Britain to die from anthrax in 30 years - are already being treated with antibiotics as a precaution after they attended the ceremony at his home in Hawick in the Borders.

Norris’s house, in Stobs near Hawick, which still contains the hides, was sealed off yesterday and an 8ft steel fence erected around his garden.

In a statement, NHS Borders said: “The house and its land has been declared an infected place under the terms of the Animal Health Act.

“The man was known to have worked with materials such as untreated animal hides, which are known to be a risk factor for acquiring anthrax.

Earlier in the year, Vado Diomande, 44, a New York drum maker and performer, contracted inhalation anthrax.

via Scotsman.com