The disease anthrax derives its name from the Greek word anthracis, meaning "coal." This name is in response to the “characteristic black, coal-like central regions located on the skin lesions of anthrax…” that appear in the cutaneous (tissue) form of the disease (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)). Although the 2001 attacks attracted widespread attention, anthrax has been present throughout history in many different areas. For example, the fifth and/or sixth plagues of Egypt that occurred in the time of Moses (1250 BC) are believed to represent the “first historical reports of the disease, due to systemic and cutaneous forms of the disease” (Turnbull) . Furthermore, its appearance was noted in areas such as Asia Minor during the siege of Troy and its description was found in the works of many famous authors such as Homer, Hippocrates, Varro, Virgil and Galen. This leads one to think that “…the Greeks and Romans knew him well” (Turnbull). Since then its appearance may have occurred in France, England, Germany, Hungary and Poland. It was only in the 1700s that its appearance was reported in America in animals. And over the next 100 years or so, anthrax was used by biologists to help advance science. Robert Koch, in 1876, established Bacillus anthracis as the first confirmed bacterial cause of a human disease. His work led to the “…development of Koch's Postulates, a set of diagnostic criteria still used by microbiologists today” (Nester). Furthermore, the anthrax vaccine, developed by Louis Pasteur in 1881, was the first effective live vaccine against a bacterial disease. All of these reported accounts, as well as those from other scientific journals from the late 1700s and 1800s, show that this disease is not new to the human race. Anthrax is a highly infectious disease caused by Bacillus anthracis that infects animals, including humans. The disease is most common in large herbivores, but can also infect humans exposed to diseased animal tissue or bacterial spores of the disease. These herbivores include cattle, sheep, horses, goats, and pigs, as well as wild populations of deer, elephant, buffalo, and others. “Anthrax incidents among animals have been reported from 82 countries,” however, these countries are limited to those with weak public veterinary health programs (Friedlander). Therefore, humans living in these countries are at high risk of contracting the disease through different means of transmission.