Anthrax, a zoonosis disease, has been annually reported in Vietnam, mainly occurs in the Northern region. The disease is caused by Bacillus anthracis, a Gram positive, encapsulated, spore-forming, nonmotile bacterium. This study was carried out in order to describe epidemiological characteristics of human anthrax cases reported in Northern region of Vietnam from 2006 to 2011. All of clinical cases from routine surveillance in northen region were included in this. study. The results have shown that from 2006 to 2011, there were 413 cases and 3 deaths (CFR=0.7 percent) occurred in 6 provinces, concentrated in mountainous provinces in the North, mostly from North-West area. The highest number of cases recorded in Dien Bien province. Human anthrax cases were reported all year around but higher from June to September. Almost patients were over 15 years old. A majority of patients were 30-49 (37.9 percent) and 15-29 (36.1 percent) years old. Proportion of male (70.7 percent) was higher than female (29.3 percent). In term of disease form, most of patients have been presenting with skin lesion compatible with cutaneous anthrax (98.5 percent), number of cases have intestinal anthrax and sepsis was small
all 3 fatal cases were intestinal anthrax, only one case with cepticemia. The majority of cases has a history of contact (slaughtering, eating,...) with sick/dead cattle (buffalo, horse, goat,...). It is needed to continue surveillance, analysis of human anthrax cases and coordinating with veterinary in monitoring and isolation outbreaks occur in cattle, strengthening community communication activities on human anthrax and strengthening control, prevention methods are essential to diminish human anthrax burden in Vietnam.