An Unusual Child Abuse Case: Anthrax Contamination

Abstract

Child abuse is defined as 'any action, or action series or inactions to children under 18 years of age which cause to actual or potential harm to the child's health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power'. In this case report, we discussed a different type of child abuse, which includes deliberately contaminating anthrax by adults to a child. A 14 years-old boy was forced to contact with meat pieces and blood of a cow which infected with anthrax, causing him to get infected with anthrax. Medico-legal evaluation of our case was revealed that the child exposed to a different type of child abuse. In addition, it was observed that the lack of attention of the competent and responsible persons regarding the notification of infectious diseases caused hazardous situations.

Keywords

• child abuse
• cutaneous anthrax
• skin lesions
• contamination
• legal medicine