Posted on 01/18/2002 8:29:21 AM PST by t-shirt
Edited on 07/06/2004 6:37:16 PM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
WASHINGTON (AP) -- There is a new problem with the Pentagon's troubled program to protect military forces from the deadly anthrax virus -- pregnant women have mistakenly been given anthrax vaccinations that can cause birth defects.
The Defense Department has ordered military health workers to come up with new plans for avoiding such mistakes after a study by the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery found pregnant women who received anthrax vaccinations ran a higher risk of having babies with defects.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
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Response on Anthrax Vaccine Disappoints
By Ridgely Ochs
Newsday STAFF WRITER
January 18, 2002
The scientist in charge of the federal government's program to dispense the anthrax vaccine to postal workers and others who may have been exposed to the deadly bacteria says he is disappointed by how few have chosen to take it.
"It is lower than I would have liked to have seen," said Dr. Bradley Perkins, the principal investigator on the anthrax vaccine program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.
More than 10,000 people, including postal, other government and media employees, were given 60 days of antibiotics because of fears they were exposed to anthrax sent through the mail. Because of concerns about the resiliency of the bacteria's spores, the CDC in late December offered these people an additional 40 days of the antibiotic Cipro or 40 days of antibiotics plus three shots of the anthrax vaccine over a one-month period. The reason for offering antibiotics plus the vaccine was to provide a "bridge" while the body built immunity from the vaccine.
So far, 1,467 people, including 244 in New York City, have chosen to take the added 40 days of Cipro, according to CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben. Only 182, including 13 in New York, have opted for the Cipro plus the vaccine, she said.
While the vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in a six-dose regimen since the 1970s and has a good safety record, it has not been approved for preventing anthrax in those who may have been exposed already. This is why so few have opted for it, Perkins said.
Because it's an off-label use offered by the government, those opting to take the vaccine are actually part of a clinical trial.
As a result, the public health message has been a complicated one. The head of the CDC, Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, was quoted last week in news reports as telling postal workers that while he would not hesitate to take the vaccine if he had had significant exposure to the disease, "if I were in your shoes and had taken 60 days of antibiotics and felt lousy from it, my answer might not be the same."
For William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, this was enough to steer him away from endorsing the vaccine.
There also has been uncertainty about production of the anthrax vaccine itself. The nation's only maker, BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich., has been unable to get FDA approval to make and ship the vaccine because of production problems.
The FDA sent the company a letter late last month saying that it has met production requirements at its laboratory but a separate facility in Washington state that puts the vaccine into vials still needs approval.
Wide Net
Report: More Than 300 Questioned in Anthrax Probe
Reuters
N E W Y O R K, Jan. 18 — Investigators have interviewed more than 300 former or current employees at laboratories able to produce anthrax similar to the kind that killed five people in the United States last year, The Wall Street Journal reported today.
"We've done over 300 interviews at places we consider really critical," the Journal quoted an official close to the investigation, whom it did not name, as saying. "I can tell you categorically that we've given a lot of people shakes [bt] there was nothing to it," the official said.
The newspaper quoted Barbara Hatch Rosenberg, who heads the biological arms-control panel for the Federation of American Scientists, as saying that some experts were upset at the investigation's slow progress and have given the FBI a list of likely suspects.
The FBI had received shortlists of suspects, including some highly placed members of the bioweapons community, more than two months ago, she said, according to the paper's online edition.
The FBI confirmed that it had received and investigated several lists but that they had no definite suspects and were pursuing all avenues of investigation, the newspaper said.
FBI representatives were not immediately available for comment.
Anthrax-tainted letters were sent to two U.S. senators and to media outlets in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. Five people have died from anthrax since early October, and 13 others have been infected.
New edict: Save smallpox samples
Vaccine research need spurs reversal of order to raze supply of virus
By CLARE NULLIS
Associated Press
GENEVA -- Acting on fears of bioterrorism, the World Health Organization's governing body Thursday reversed a long-standing order for the destruction of all smallpox virus stocks and recommended they be retained for research into new vaccines or treatment.
The U.N. health agency's 32-member executive board endorsed a recommendation by WHO Director-General Gro Harlem Brundtland to drop a 2002 deadline for destroying the virus, held at top security laboratories in the United States and Russia.
It set no new target for destroying the stocks, saying only that a report on the progress of research should be drawn up in two to three years.
Kenneth Bernard, an assistant U.S. surgeon general, told the meeting that research into improved vaccines was vital since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States and the subsequent anthrax scare. The risk of the highly contagious virus being used as a bioterrorism weapon can no longer be considered remote, he said.
"We regard the potential release of smallpox as a critical national and international security issue," he said. "We all know the impact of such an event would be devastating for everyone."
The Russian delegation echoed that view, saying more research is needed to create vaccines against new forms of the virus, including one produced through gene technology.
Smallpox used to kill 3 million to 4 million people per year and left millions more hideously scarred and blind. It was declared eradicated in 1979 after a massive WHO-spearheaded campaign.
Virus samples were placed in two secure laboratories at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta and a similar Russian facility in Siberia.
In 1996, WHO set a target of mid-1999 for destruction of the virus. But after U.S. and Russian resistance, it extended the deadline to "not later than 2002." This will now be dropped if the executive board's recommendation is adopted - as expected - by the full World Health Assembly in May.
Countries such as Japan, which had previously taken the lead in pushing for destruction of the virus, voiced support for the U.S. position in Thursday's debate.
China was the lone dissenting voice but was not able to block the consensus as it is currently not a member of the executive board.
"We believe early eradication of the virus stocks is the only fundamental guarantee of the eradication of smallpox," Chinese ambassador Sha Zukang said.
"No one can guarantee that the stocks won't be released. If that were to happen, mankind would be faced with a most devastating biological catastrophe."
Clinton Says U.S. Must Give More to End Terrorism (Calls "Terrorism 'Dark side' of Globalization")
FDA Clears Anthrax Lab (BioPort Ready To Make Big $$ Off Anthrax Murders with Experimental Vaccine)
FBI Informant Loses Supreme Court Battle in Anthrax Case (Punished For Trying ToStop AnthraxTerror?)
NAU defends shipping of live anthrax spores (Amazing)
[Update]: (Experimental)Anthrax Vaccine Has Few Takers (So-Far Only 100 Dumb Enough To Be GuneaPigs)
U.S. Says It Bought Radiation Drug (7.6 million Doses, Are They Expecting Nuke-Terror Attack?)
Servicemen exposed in tests await aid (UpdateGovt' Used Biological Agents Spraying On US Soldiers)
Thousands weigh options as (Experimental) Anthrax Vaccinations Begin
Anthrax investigators focusing on strain from military facility (Possible Suspect:Mike Failey)
Anthrax Vaccine Plan Sows Confusion D.C. Advises Workers Against (Experimental) Treatment
U.S. Offers ("Unlicensed, Controversial" "Military") Anthrax Vaccine to Thousands
"Los Alamos..Illegally received a shipment of lethal, live anthrax In late October" -Quote MyTitle
Anthrax Likely Originated in U.S., White House Says
AnthraxVaccine Mulled For Up to3,000 Exposed,Experimental Use Likely to Be Controversial (GuneaPigs)
(1st FBI Finds Army ,Now CIA+PortonDown Linked To Anthrax Strain, Detrick Had To Be Original Source)
Army's Anthrax Material Surprises Some Experts (Why Did Army Not Disclose ThisBefore FBI Found Out?)
Va. Scientist Was Killed With Sword ("A planned Assasination", Witchcraft, drinking blood involved)
Army Working on Weapons-Grade Anthrax, Report Says (Spores Shipped Month Before Attracks Began)
Scientist Found Slain In His Loudoun Home (2 More Bio-Experts Dead, EbolaVictimMissing)
Anthrax matches Army spores (Identical To Dugway PG, Ft Detrick Anthrax)
Released Anthrax Suspect "was questioned solely about immigration status, not about anthrax"
an Associated Press report 1/17/02
WASHINGTON - Plans to reopen the Hart Senate Office Building, which has been closed for three months due to anthrax were put on hold Thursday after gear associated with the cleanup was found inside the building.
In addition, basement rooms in the adjoining Dirksen Senate Office Building that share the same ventilation system have been closed, the Senate's Sergeant at Arms office said in a statement on its Web site.
The statement said bagged "personal protective gear used in dealing with hazardous material" had been found in the hallway ceiling outside Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle's office on the sixth floor of the Hart building.
"It has not been determined whether this discovery poses a health risk," the statement said.
It added: "The Hart building will remain closed and the cleaning of the Hart building has been suspended pending the receipt and analysis of test results."
People in the area of the discovered gear have been placed on preventive antibiotics.
Just one day earlier, officials had pronounced the building free of anthrax, and maintenance crews began preparing it for a Friday reopening. Health and environmental officials had said repeated efforts to cleanse the building had "achieved the goal of eliminating viable anthrax spores."
The building was closed after a letter believed to contain billions of anthrax spores was opened Oct. 15 in Daschle's office.
The letter -- which also contained a threatening note -- came as anthrax was detected in dozens of locations around Washington, New York and elsewhere, causing five fatalities and a national focus on bioterrorism. The nine-story Hart building, which houses the offices of half the 100 senators, has been closed since Oct. 17.
In the initial days after the Daschle letter was opened, officials said Hart could be cleaned up and reoccupied by mid-November.
Go here for Official Bump List (Topics)
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Call them BioPotty and yes they rushed the approval. We are working hard and many our spending many days in DC and New York. We will stay in the fight until the end. I love my Anthrax-No family, everyone of them! Maybe you all caught Col. Handy (Ret) on MSNBC with Dr. Sue Baily! As far as the pregnancy thing, they have know all along not to give the shot but FORCED it on these women anyway. Look at the GW Vets and their familys.
I just received this email from a concerned citizen: "According to the CDC's informed consent documentation, the anthrax vaccine is listed as a possible cause of birth defects if given to pregnant women.
This contradicts everything the DOD has stated previously (i.e. "it couldn' t possibly cause any damage because it uses an inactive virus.")
Now a Navy study indicates that there is a link between anthrax vaccine and an increased risk of birth defects and DOD has issued new instructions to ensure that the vaccine is not given to pregnant women - even so far as to provide pregnancy tests. Yet the DOD is not releasing any of the details of the Navy study. This is a typical action for DOD - suppress any negative information about the vaccine while continuing to treat troops who have educated themselves about the real risks and refuse to be vaccinated like criminals.
An overwhelming majority of the civilians exposed to supposedly lethal doses of the weapons-grade anthrax spores rejected the free vaccine due to concerns of side effects and whether there was actual justification for its use. CDC and other public health officials failed to come to a unanimous conclusion and contradicted one another. Five dead from around 10,000 exposed to the highest-quality, most concentrated, weapons-grade anthrax does not seem to indicate the threat that anthrax did prior to the attacks.
Military members should have the same choice as the civilians. They are our heroes and they deserve better."
Now if you have not signed the FDA Citizens Petition, please go to this link and read the Citizens Petition and sign (above the counter). You will be doing our military a great service.
It appears that people are becoming better-informed. Good!
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