A recent report has found that drum circles could be dangerous to the health of participants.
The feature is based on the case of a young woman from New Hampshire who fell ill and then tested positive for anthrax after being hospitalised with severe flu-like symptoms, nausea, vomiting and abdominal cramps.
It was found that the woman had become infected with the dangerous bacteria after taking part in a drum circle – in which tens of people gather and play drums together – a week prior to ending up in hospital.
Apparently, several of the drums are made of animal skins, unbeknownst to the joyful percussionists, harbouring healthy colonies of anthrax spores.
The bacteria was detected on the heads of two drums and it is thought that the spores then landed on food that the ill woman consumed.
A similar case happened in 2007, when two drummers were infected with anthrax after purchasing goat hides from Guinea, which they intended to shape into tom-tom drums.
The worst that should have resulted from this woman’s drum circle experience was a bad nostalgia hangover. Instead she was gravely ill and hospitalised for two months.
Finally, a scientific reason to hate drum circles.
by David Livingstone
