Anthrax is caused by gram-positive bacterium called Bacillus anthracis which can be naturally found in soil and can infect livestock and domesticated animals around the world.
although it is uncommon in the United States there have been multiple "Anthrax attacks" in the last century, most notably September 18th, 2001.
5 letters with an amount of powdered anthrax spores were mailed to several democratic offices, infecting 22 people, and killing 5 of them.
When coming into contact with skin, it becomes known as Cutaneous anthrax which causes lesions to appear on the skin, pictures omitted because they are very gross
In December of 2009, an outbreak occurred in Glasglow, Scotland, which spread through the injection of heroin, 14 people were killed, and it was believed to be due to dilution of heroin and bone meal in Afghanistan. The effects were similar to that of Cutaneous anthrax, causing lesions, but also causing infection deep into the muscle