Anthrax Vaccine: Imperative to Troops Safety

English 102

02 December 2002

Anthrax Vaccine: Imperative to Troops Safety

The United Nations Security Council made a unanimous decision on November 8, 2002, to insist that Saddam Hussein permit United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM) inspectors to determine whether Iraq's weapons of mass destruction have been destroyed. The decision presents a final opportunity for Iraq to disarm itself or face a probable attack by the United States (U.S.) and British forces. As war grows more likely, there is an increased need to ensure that the 200,000 to 250,000 U.S. troops expected to participate in the war will be protected against possible Iraqi use of anthrax as a biological weapon. Vaccinating military personnel against anthrax is a necessary, safe and effective means of providing that protection.

In anticipation of a bioweapon attack, either against troops overseas or in the U.S., the Department of Defense (D.o.D.) began in 1998 to conduct the somewhat controversial Anthrax Vaccine Immunization program (AVIP). The goal of this program is to protect all active duty members and high risk reservists against an anthrax attack (Inglesby et al.' Miller, 245). Supplies of anthrax vaccine were minimal when the program began, and efforts to produce enough vaccine to protect several million military members rapidly failed, leading to a slowing of the program and its eventual halt. Bioport, the sole licensed anthrax vaccine producer in the U.S., had failed to satisfy Food and Drug Administration's safety and manufacturing requirements, and vaccine production levels were too low to continue the program (Miller 203). During the same period, reports of side-effects experienced by eight of the 260,000 people who had been vaccinated (Miller 266) filled the media and needed to be investigated and evaluated. Other military members publicly objected to the mandatory aspect of the program, which they felt was unsafe and even experimental. It is no wonder that the safety and...