Not entirely old news, a woman was recently reported to have caught gastrointestinal anthrax from a drum circle. Anthrax from drum skins still occurs rarely, and risk is extremely low but not zero. Specific conditions have been identified that are associated with anthrax infection from drums, including hair still on the skins.
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtm ... mm5928a3_w2 different drums out of 54 tested were identified that had anthrax spores. Interestingly, the woman who got anthrax was a vegan who played a drum with a synthetic head that was not contaminated with anthrax. The source of the anthrax was 2 different drums, both of which still had hair on the skins. Since anthrax spores were found in multiple locations in the room, it seems likely that the anthrax spores were aerosolized from the drum heads while they were being played. A total of 84 people were potentially exposed at the event but only 1 got anthrax. I have never heard of a case of anthrax from a drum with a head that did not have hair on it.
Those of us who play drums with hairless skins seem to have no risk of anthrax, as long as we avoid "drum circles" where nondrummers bring old hairy drums and play nonrhythms. That is where the true danger lies.
Posted: Sat Jul 24, 2010 6:45 am
verry good indeed !!!!!