Conference Report on Public Health and Clinical Guidelines for Anthrax

On March 13-14, 2006, a meeting on anthrax, sponsored by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in collaboration with the Southeastern Center for Emerging Biologic Threats, was held at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. The meeting's agenda included discussion of postexposure prophylaxis (PEP), screening and evaluation, and treatment of the various manifestations of human anthrax. The goal was to convene subject matter experts for a review of research developments and clinical experience with anthrax prophylaxis and treatment and to make consensus recommendations for updating guidelines for PEP, treatment, and clinical evaluation of patients with anthrax. A 2001 conference on guidelines for anthrax has previously been summarized in this journal. This article summarizes the meeting's presentations and discussion. Consensus recommendations are summarized in the Table. Updated CDC guidelines for treatment and prophylaxis of anthrax will be published in detail in other CDC publications and are available on CDC's website at http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/anthrax/index.asp.