Arthur Friedlander comments on anthrax vaccine [1994]

[Guest guest]

Before DOD decided to give 2.4 million servicemembers the anthrax

vaccine, what did DOD's own chief expert say about the vaccine and

anthrax?

According to Dr. Arthur Friedlander, MC Colonel and head of Bacteriology

at Fort Detrick's USAMRIID, writing in a textbook published in 1994

[brachman PS and Friedlander AM: Anthrax. In Plotkin SA and Mortimer EA

(eds): Vaccines, ed 2. Philadelphia, WB Saunders, 1994, pp.729-739]

" Although the importance of the toxins in pathogenesis suggests that

antiserum may have a role in treating serious infections, no product is

available for human use. " [i confirmed that this remained the case in

Sept 1998. DOD still does not have this potentially life-saving

treatment available for anthrax infection, although this treatment has

been used over the past hundred years--Nass]

" Potency testing of the vaccine is performed by parenterally challenging

guinea pigs. No direct determination of the content or structure of the

protective antigen in the vaccine have been made, and it is unknown

whether the protective antigen is biologically active. " [They still do

not know the precise content of this vaccine--Nass]

" ...the live veterinary vaccine provides significantly greater

protection against anthrax in experimental animals than the human

vaccine... "

" No assessment of the effectiveness of the vaccine against inhalation

anthrax could be made because there were too few cases. "

" There have been no controlled clinical trials in humans of the efficacy

of the currently licensed U.S. vaccine. "

--

Meryl Nass, M.D.

Parkview Hospital, Brunswick, Maine 04011

email mnass@...

phone (207) 865-0875

fax (207) 865-6975