12 year old boy dies in new anthrax outbreak in Siberia!

“From day one we’ve been walking the extra mile and doing everything possible to save every life. But the infection has proven to be insidious,” he said. “It returned after 75 years and claimed a child’s life.”

This epidemic is a rare case, scientists say, but the cause goes a long way back.

“In Siberia, it is an uncommon event, and the issue is that a raindeer likely defrosted from the permafrost because of the heat wave that occurred, and that animal had the spores in it [which] got into the environment around it. Other raindeer, who were nibbling on the grass, acquired the anthrax infection themselves,” professor of preventive medicine Doctor William Schaffner told RT.

More than two thousand of those deer have already died, all of them in the Yamalo-Nenetsky area. This territory is located above the Arctic Circle, and is generally known for a very long winter that lasts up to 8 months, and extremely low temperatures, reaching -70 degrees Celsius.

A total of 90 people, half of them children, were taken to hospital after being evacuated from the remote area where the infection spread. Most of them tested negative for the disease.

Yamal residents are collecting donations for the evacuees, who had to leave most of their possessions behind. Considering their nomadic lifestyle, many of them are now left with nothing except the clothes they are wearing.

The ongoing anthrax outbreak is the first reported in Yamal in over seven decades.