In August, 2007, the Hospital identified a curious skin condition that was confirmed as Cutaneous Anthrax. The patient worked with goatskin hides from West Africa while making West African style drums. One of the patient’s children developed a similar skin lesion; the first ever reported case of naturally acquired Cutaneous Anthrax in a household contact caused by secondary contamination from drum-making.
The child never did any drum-making nor had any exposure to animal hides. The child played inside the home, was prohibited from going into the shed, both parents denied their child touched the drum left inside. Samples taken were culture positive for B. anthracis: drumheads, shed samples the transport car trunk and samples from the family home.
The index patient was exposed while sanding a drumhead made from goatskin hide from West Africa. The child was likely exposed to Anthrax spores brought into the house by the index patient from the contaminated shed.
Federal, state, and local officials for coordinated decontamination of the shed, car and house.  Firstly, decontamination of the car, wood barn and contents by the application of a 0.5% sodium hypochlorite solution. Secondly, the fumigation of the house and contents with chlorine dioxide gas at concentrations of 9,000 ppmv.
Efforts to trace the source of the recently purchased goatskin hides continued by US Customs. Clearance sampling protocols generated by Unified Command used the absence of live spores by culturing as the standard clearance protocol.