Anthrax Prevention :: Anthrax Vaccine

Aside from treatments of the disease, there is also another way to fight anthrax: an anthrax vaccine. For some time now, a vaccine to protect animals from anthrax has been available. It wasn’t until â€Å"†¦1970, when a human vaccine was licensed called Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA)† (Joellenbeck). It was licensed for workers at high risk for occupational exposure to anthrax. The vaccine is â€Å"†¦a cell-free filtrate containing protective antigen as the principal immunogen† (Joellenbeck). The vaccine also was â€Å"†¦found to be 93% effective in preventing both cutaneous and inhalation anthrax† (CDC). Starting in the 1990s, the U.S. military created a vaccination program that required all active duty members to receive the anthrax vaccine due to the threat of infection in the battlefield as well as using a biological weapon in warfare. The vaccination involved a series of six shots within 18 months, followed by yearly boosters. For  "†¦the Persian Gulf War, 150,000 America soldiers were inoculated with the anthrax vaccine in 1991† (Joellenbeck). In 1998, the FDA halted production at its manufacturer’s facility due to safety violations. It wasn’t until 2002, when the manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine was â€Å"†¦finally able to meet all FDA production and licensing requirements and was permitted to continue full-scale vaccine production† (Darling). Even though the vaccine is being produced, it is not available to the general public. The closest thing to the anthrax vaccine the â€Å"†¦CDC has offered was part of an investigational new drug (IND) protocol† in response to the bioterrorism events in 2001. Currently, the only allowed people to receive the vaccination are â€Å"†¦those who work with animal tissue imported from areas where anthrax is endemic, military personnel deployed to areas with a high risk of exposure during an attack, and persons who work directly with the organism in a laboratory† (CDC). This is due to a low but significant chance of side effects from using the vaccine as well as a short supply of it. Many groups claim that the vaccine was somewhat responsible for â€Å"Gulf War Syndrome† but a study done on it found that â€Å"†¦the available evidence from studies with humans and animals, coupled with reasonable assumptions of analogy, showed that AVA as licensed is an effective vaccine for the protection of humans against anthrax, including inhalational anthrax caused by any type of engineered strain of B. anthracis† (Joellenbeck). This comes as good news considering the ever-increasing fear of bioterrorism prevalent in the world.