An illness with acute onset characterized by several distinct clinical forms, including the following:

	Cutaneous: a skin lesion evolving during a period of 2-6 days from a papule, through a vesicular stage, to a depressed black eschar
	Inhalation: a brief prodrome resembling a viral respiratory illness, followed by development of hypoxia and dyspnea, with radiographic evidence of mediastinal widening
	Intestinal: severe abdominal distress followed by fever and signs of septicemia
	Oropharyngeal: mucosal lesion in the oral cavity or oropharynx, cervical adenopathy and edema, and fever

Laboratory criteria for diagnosis of Anthrax

	Isolation of Bacillus anthracis from a clinical specimen, or
	Anthrax electrophoretic immunotransblot (EITB) reaction to the protective antigen and/or lethal factor bands in one or more serum samples obtained after onset of symptoms, or
	Demonstration of B. anthracis in a clinical specimen by immunofluorescence

Source: Centers for Disease Control, US Department of Health