Fw: For my website and the list: comments, anyone?

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For my website and the list: comments, anyone?

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September 20, 2001

Response to those seeking anthrax vaccine information and/or

vaccination:

This webwsite provides an enormous amount of information on anthrax

vaccine. This is because, for a very controversial and complex subject,

" the devil is in the details. " Here I am just giving my brief opinion

of what to do *now*.

If anthrax is used for bioterrorism, the existing vaccine may or may not

be effective. In the one human study ever done of any anthrax vacine,

the vaccine was about 70% effective at preventing anthrax infections.

The current vaccine's effectiveness has not been tested in humans.

Although it was 95% effective in monkeys, there are reasons to believe

monkeys respond to it better than humans. Antibiotics (doxycycline and

ciprofloxacin) prevented anthrax in 80% and 90% of a small number of

monkeys. But both antibiotics and vaccines can be defeated using widely

known genetic engineering techniques to create resistant anthrax

strains, or specially selecting naturally occurring anthrax strains.

Cipro is the only antibiotic that has been approved by FDA for use

against anthrax, because the manufacturer applied for this indication

recently.

Anthrax experts in the past have felt that antibiotics are an excellent

prophylactic measure, but that vaccines will add to their protection

when given *following* an exposure, based on animal experiments.

Anthrax does NOT spread from person to person. It ONLY affects those

who breathe in the spores when first released. There is only a tiny

risk from spores that are re-aerosolized later. Therefore, if you are

not in the immediate area of release, or in a narrow path where spores

of sufficient quantity are carried by the wind (it requires tens of

thousands to millions of spores to cause infection) you will not be

affected.

The vaccine presently available has caused longlasting medical illness

in a significant proportion of those who receive it. All existing doses

are currently under quarantine by FDA for manufacturing lapses. Even if

FDA decides the bioterrorism risk is real and releases the quarantined

vaccine for military or civilian use, the manufacturing lapses and risk

of chronic illness *remain*.

IF the antibiotics are effective (this depends on the strain of anthrax

employed), one has time to consider use of the vaccine afterward. If

antibiotics are not effective, then the vaccine may be lifesaving, or

may be ineffective. But I suspect that 10-35% of vaccine recipients

develop illnesses resembling chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia,

multiple chemical sensitivity, autoimmune illnesses, and/or

neuropathies: also known as " Gulf War Syndrome. " This is the tradeoff

you are making when receiving this vaccine.

One can, however, take antibiotics *in advance of* an attack, and still

get their benefit if an anthrax attack were to occur.

Personally, I have antibiotics handy, but will use them only if attack

apears imminent or has occurred. If vaccine is made available, you will

never find me lining up for my dose...by the way, there are six initial

doses and then one-two yearly booster shots. Protection, you see, does

not come quickly, nor easily.

Meryl Nass, MD

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