Anthrax vaccine immunization program

Our initial expectations were that we would interview far more FDA officials than we did. However, we ended up interviewing more DoD officials, at all levels of policy and operations. Officials were interviewed in the following DoD offices Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP) J-4 Eogistics Directorate Office of the ASD(HA) JPO-BD the Defense Supply Center in Philadelphia Office of the Assistant to the Secretary of Defense for Nuclear, Chemical, and Biological Defense Programs U.S. Army Soldier Biological and Chemical Command U.S. Army Medical Materiel Development Activity and U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases... 

Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program http //www.anthrax.osd.mil/... 

The anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program in the U.S. Army Surgeon General s Office can be reached at 1-877-GETVACC (1-877-438-8222). http //www.anthrax.osd.mil... 

DOD Response to the Staff Report of the House Government Reform s Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans Affairs and International Relations entitled, The Department of Defense Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program Unproven Force Protection, (February 29, 2000) p. 3. Found at... 

In December 1997, Secretary of Defense William Cohen announced a departmentwide anthrax immunization program for high-risk military personnel. Implementation began in March 1998. On May 18, 1998, the Secretary authorized the vaccination of all military forces (Cohen, 1998). Almost 2.5 million troop-equivalent doses of vaccine were required to implement the Secretary s decision, much more than had ever been produced by the licensed manufacturer in its entire history. Prior to Desert Storm, the primary vaccine users had been veterinary, laboratory, and industrial workers at risk of infection, for whom an estimated 60,000 doses of Anthrax Vaccine Absorbed (AVA) were distributed between 1974 and 1989, an average of 4,533 doses per year (foellenbeck et al., 2002). During Desert Storm, approximately 150,000 troops received 300,000 doses of AVA, without accurate recording of recipients or adverse reactions. 

Anthrax. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Immunization Program. Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Illnesses. Anthrax, Chapter 20 307-322. The Pink Book. Updated Eighth Edition, 2005. http //www.cdc.gov/nip/publications/ pink/anthrax.pdf (last accessed 4/07/07)... 

This is not the first time in history that military personnel have been ordered to be immunized against a possible BW agent, nor is the current policy debate over anthrax vaccinations for the US military unprecedented. Immunization programs to protect soldiers from infectious diseases— whether they be naturally present or in the form of a BW threat—go back at least four centuries, and some of these have also been quite controversial. For example, whether or not to continue vaccination of US troops against smallpox had been hotly debated, especially throughout the 1980s. 

Note Dr. Sue Bailey, Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs, released a statement on June 29, 1999 that almost one million shots given, the anthrax immunization is proving to be one of the safest vaccination programs on record. The above reports occurred for 50 service members at one installation alone. Note that no number of military personnel was mentioned at this installation, nor did it give any percentages of the above reaction patterns... 

---