Bhubaneswar, April 22: Anthrax reappeared in Orissa after seven people in the tribal-dominated Koraput district were found to be have been infected with the bacteria of the deadly disease.

The disease was detected in Nasikapadar, a tribal village in Laxmipur block of Koraput district, last week. A health team that visited the village after reports of three anthrax deaths detected the infection in seven persons.

Although the doctors did not find anthrax infection among the dead, they found it among other people in the hamlet. ?The village had about a dozen people who had developed illnesses. After examination, the doctors found that at least seven of them had consumed rotten meat and developed anthrax infection,? said Ishwar Barda, additional district magistrate of Koraput. ?They are now undergoing treatment and are out of danger,? said Debesh Behera, assistant surgeon of the local government hospital.

Behera said the team also had to destroy rotten beef found in the houses of most villagers. ?The village reports similar infections almost every year even as we have been telling the people not to eat such meat,? he said.

The village has a population of about 100, most of them belonging to the Parka tribe. In 2003, at least 10 people in tribal-dominated Rayagada district had contracted anthrax, which killed seven in the same area. The first anthrax case in Orissa was reported by a missionary hospital in Koraput in June 2003.

Anthrax is a rare disease caused by the spores of the bacterium Bacillus Anthracis. It causes enlargement of the spleen and is also known as spleen fever or ?wool sorter?s disease?. It is carried from animals to the human population. Doctors say people get infected while peeling dead cattle and the lesions, if not treated, led to septicaemia which is fatal.