The U.S. Defense Department expects to announce details of a new anthrax vaccination plan for soldiers within the next month, the department said yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 18).

“We’ve undergone a very thorough process over the last several weeks looking at options and have discussed those with people both on the military medical side as well as the nonmedical side (and) civilian leadership, and we will soon be making some announcements,” Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs Bill Winkenwerder said.

Pentagon medical officers have requested that the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board and the Institute of Medicine conduct studies on the safety of the anthrax vaccine, which received Food and Drug Administration approval in January (see GSN, Feb. 1).  The results of those studies are expected soon, Winkenwerder said.

Defense officials are working with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on studies to examine new ways to administer the anthrax vaccine, according to the Pentagon.

Pentagon officials want to determine whether the vaccine can be administered in a shorter time period and with fewer inoculations than currently prescribed, according to Randy Rudolph, director of the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program Agency.  The vaccine is currently administered in a series of six shots given over 18 months.

Defense also said it would also like to be able reduce the number of inoculation-site reactions.  About 30 percent of men and 60 percent of women who are given the vaccine report a minor reaction, of about less than an inch in size, at the inoculation site, Rudolph said.  He added that more serious reactions are rare.

The reactions are not harmful but it is still worth attempting to reduce their number, Rudolph said. 

“No one likes swelling, and no one likes pain and redness,” he said (U.S. Defense Department release, Feb. 28).

Two Anthrax Fraud Cases Settled

The Federal Trade Commission has settled two deceptive advertising cases against a company selling a home anthrax test kit and one selling a dietary supplement supposedly able to cure anthrax, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Jan. 3).

Vital Living Products Inc. has agreed to stop marketing its “PurTest Anthrax Test,” which claimed to be able to detect anthrax, according to the commission.  The Raw Health Web Site has agreed to stop making unproven claims that its colloidal silver supplement could cure 650 diseases, including anthrax and Ebola.

“These companies used inaccurate and unfounded claims to sell peace of mind,” said FTC Director of Consumer Protection Howard Beales.  “They tried to cash in on consumer anxiety.

The commission has since November warned the operators of 120 Web sites that sell products with suspicious claims of being able to cure diseases caused by biological weapons, such as anthrax and smallpox.  The suspicious products include dietary supplements such as zinc mineral water and oregano oil, according to the AP.  The commission said that two-thirds of the warned Web sites have removed the claims (David Ho, Associated Press, Feb. 27).

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