| |Anthrax|21Anthrax |
| |  | Your Health and Safety are Our #1 Concerns. |
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| Healthy troops complete their missions. Vaccines will keep you and your team healthy. |
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Vaccines shield you from dangerous germs.
- These germs can kill you or cause lasting harm.
- Vaccines prevent infections, such as tetanus, typhoid fever, measles, yellow fever, and anthrax, to name just a few.
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Vaccines keep units fit to fight.
- We fight as a team. All team members must be healthy.
- That's why voluntary vaccination is not an option.
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Vaccines benefit both individuals and units.
- Vaccines keep people healthy so they can live better lives.
- Vaccines keep people healthy so they can do their mission.
- Vaccines help you return home healthy.
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| Vaccines have kept troops healthy since the days of George Washington. |
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George Washington protected his troops from smallpox in 1777 using a forerunner of vaccination called “variolation”.
- We lost the Battle of Quebec in 1776, because our troops weren't protected against smallpox.
- Americans suffered 5,500 smallpox casualties among 10,000 colonial troops. The task force commander, Major General John Thomas, died of smallpox.
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From 1777 to today, vaccines prevented American troops from dangerous infections.
- Typhoid vaccine reduced typhoid casualties from 20,000 in Spanish-American War of 1898 to just 1,500 in World War I.
- During all of World War II, only 12 cases of tetanus occurred among vaccinated US troops, but numerous tetanus deaths occurred among the unvaccinated Germany Army (Wehrmacht).
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Vaccines are among the most important accomplishments in medicine.
- Vaccines have saved more lives throughout the world than any other medical invention.
- Vaccines have saved more lives than antibiotics or surgery.
- Only clean water has saved more lives than vaccines.
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| Vaccination offers a layer of protection in addition to antibiotics and other measures that is needed for certain members of the Armed forces. |
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We protect troops using detection devices, protective gear, antibiotics, and in other ways.
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But these means of Force Health Protection have their limitations.
- People can't stay in protective gear for days on end and perform well.
- Our best bioweapon detectors don’t work fast enough to prevent exposure to anthrax spores.
- Antibiotics are effective for some kinds of anthrax, but may not work fast enough.
- Antibiotics also can cause side effects, especially if taken for a long time.
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Vaccines are one of our best ways to keep you healthy.
- The President directed us to use safe and effective vaccines to protect against bioweapons and deployment infections (Executive Order 13139).
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Vaccines provide the only round-the-clock protection.
- Vaccines, combined with other measures, offer the best chance for individual survival and mission accomplishment.
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| | | The anthrax vaccine is safe and effective. |
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| The vaccine is effective: Anthrax vaccine protects people from anthrax infection. |
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Anthrax vaccine protected animals from inhalational anthrax in multiple studies.
- 95% of vaccinated Rhesus monkeys survived lethal doses of inhaled anthrax.
- 97% of vaccinated rabbits survived lethal doses of inhaled anthrax.
- Vaccines protect guinea pigs from inhaled anthrax modestly, about 22%.
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Anthrax vaccine works basically the same way other vaccines do.
- Anthrax vaccine works the same way as tetanus toxoid, rabies vaccine, and other vaccines that save millions of lives.
- Like other vaccines, anthrax vaccine causes the body to make protective antibodies.
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We know anthrax vaccine works, because it protected mill workers in a study conducted by CDC scientists.
- These mill workers were mainly at risk for cutaneous (“skin”) anthrax.
- There was an unexpected outbreak of inhalational anthrax during this study.
- The anthrax vaccine originally tested is basically the same as the one used today.
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Like other vaccines, anthrax vaccine is not perfect.
- Anthrax vaccine is not 100% effective.
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| The Vaccine is Safe: Anthrax vaccine is safe, as safe as other vaccines. |
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Like other vaccines, anthrax vaccine may cause soreness, redness, itching, swelling and a small lump at the injection site.
- Women may experience more local reactions than men, but these reactions usually last only a few days.
- Other symptoms may occur such as muscle or joint aches, headaches, rashes, chills, low-grade fever
or nausea. These symptoms usually go away in less than a week.
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Many people get bothersome side effects where any vaccine is injected.
- People report redness, swelling, pain, burning, itching, and similar temporary symptoms at the injection site after anthrax vaccination.
- The rate of these reactions is similar to that of other vaccines.
- Anthrax vaccine often causes a lump under the skin where the vaccine is injected.
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Study after study shows: people vaccinated against anthrax are as healthy as unvaccinated people.
- We compared anthrax-vaccinated and unvaccinated people, and their rates of getting diseases are the same.
- Data going back 20+ years shows anthrax vaccination is safe.
- There are now 18 safety studies of anthrax vaccine involving > 500,000 recipients.
- There is no reasonable evidence that anthrax vaccine caused Gulf War illnesses.
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Consistent with U.S. national vaccine guidelines, by DoD policy, pregnant women are not vaccinated with anthrax vaccine or any vaccine routinely.
- DoD's policy is to withhold anthrax vaccine from pregnant women, just as many medications are avoided during pregnancy.
- Vaccinated women are just as likely to get pregnant as unvaccinated women.
- Vaccinated women are just as likely to give birth as unvaccinated women.
- Preliminary findings suggest vaccination during pregnancy might lead to increased odds of birth defects.
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On 11 December 2008, the FDA approved a change in route of administration for the anthrax vaccine adsorbed from a subcutaneous (SC) injection over the deltoid to an intramuscular (IM) injection in the deltoid.
- A recent CDC study shows the route change to IM has significantly reduced the local reactions and discomfort at the injection site and still affords the same level of protection against anthrax as with the previous SC injections.
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Lumps under the skin were often seen when the anthrax vaccine was administered as a SC injection.
- Anthrax vaccine administered as an IM injection in the deltoid has reduced the lumps at the injection site
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| | | Anthrax: The threat is real. |
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| Anthrax is a top choice for use as a biological warfare agent. |
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Anthrax bacteria produce spores that can be processed to become easily airborne.
- Mail sorting machinery can easily aerosolize anthrax in envelopes sent via regular methods through the US postal service.
- Anthrax spores can be spread in the air by missiles, rockets, artillery, aerial bombs and sprayers.
- Anthrax can travel downwind for hundreds of miles.
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Anthrax spores remain dangerous for decades.
- During WWII the British experimented with anthrax on Gruinard Island. 40 years later, the island was still uninhabitable and had to be decontaminated.
- Naturally occurring anthrax spores remain dormant in the soil for decades. Grazing animals can ingest them and become infected with the disease.
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Anthrax can be produced in large quantities with relatively basic technology.
- All of the technology need to produce weaponized anthrax is considered dual use—meaning it has legitimate uses in the biological and pharmaceutical industries.
- The technology is available on the open market with few controls to purchase.
- Any country with basic healthcare or a basic pharmaceutical industry has the expertise to produce anthrax.
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| Several potential adversaries have worked to develop an offensive biological warfare capability using anthrax. |
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In 1992, Boris Yeltsin revealed that the former Soviet Union had a biological weapons program that dwarfed Iraq’s by comparison.
- Soviet expertise may be employed by potential adversaries.
- Defectors revealed that the former Soviet Union had weaponized anthrax employed on missiles, bombs and artillery.
- Defectors from the former Soviet Union stated that anthrax would have been used against US forces in a war in Europe.
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Terrorist groups can also use anthrax as a biological weapon.
- The Japanese cult Aum Shinrikyo spent millions of dollars on the development of biological weapons and actually attempted to release anthrax in Tokyo.
- Evidence surfaced after the September 11 terror attacks that Osama bin Laden’s Al-Queda organization attempted to develop anthrax as a biological weapon.
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In the aftermath of the Gulf War, defectors forced Iraq to reveal that it had an extensive biological weapons program, including anthrax.
- UNSCOM discovered that Iraq conducted extensive aerosol dispersion tests using an anthrax simulent.
- UNSCOM, the United Nations Special Commission, found evidence of anthrax-filled weapons in Iraq.
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| Anthrax was used as a biological weapon in the United States. |
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In the wake of the September 11 terror attacks, US citizens were intentionally exposed to anthrax.
- Men and women from Florida, Virginia, Washington DC, New Jersey, New York and Connecticut contracted cutaneous and inhalational anthrax.
- There were 7 confirmed and 4 “probable” cases of cutaneous anthrax; all survived. Eleven people contracted inhalational anthrax. Of those eleven people, five died.
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Congress and major media outlets were virtually shut down after being targeted with anthrax.
- The anthrax outbreaks and subsequent scares and hoaxes caused panic.
- Thousands of congressional staffers, mail handlers and media personnel needed protection using antibiotics and vaccinations.
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Delivering weaponized anthrax was as simple as putting it in an envelope and dropping it in a mailbox.
- The letter sent to Senator Leahy contained enough spores to kill many people .
- Spores leaked out of envelopes and led to anthrax disease or death in 22 people.
- If there is a risk for inhalational anthrax associated with exposure to cross contaminated mail, it is very low.
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| | | Vaccination offer a layer of protection in addition to antibiotics and other measures needed for certain members of the Armed Forces |
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