Fernando Gomez was a percussionist with Alasvals, an alternative folk group, and worked as a teacher doing drumming workshops and African drumming.



"Nando" died on November 2, 2008 after inhaling anthrax. He was 35 years old. Health investigators thought Fernando to have contracted the disease from imported animal hides, which he used to make bongo drums.



In Britain, a similar case came in 2006, when Christopher Norris, a drum-maker from Hawick in Scotland, died after inhaling anthrax. A report concluded that he picked up the illness from infected West African hides.