Iraq:  Vaccinations Probably Did Not Cause Pneumonia Cases, Army Official Says

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Anthrax vaccinations are not considered to be probable causes of 18 serious pneumonia cases involving U.S. Army personnel that were stationed in Southwest Asia, a senior U.S. Army medical official said yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 7).

“At this point in the review, vaccinations are considered unlikely to be a factor in this series of cases,” Col. John Grabenstein, deputy director of the Army’s Military Vaccine Agency, said in an e-mailed statement responding to questions by Global Security Newswire.

Army reports say that since March 1, about 100 military personnel in the region have shown pneumonia-like symptoms, and 18 — more than half in Iraq — have become seriously ill, requiring ventilator support.  Two have died.

Epidemiological consultation teams dispatched by the Army surgeon general to the region and to Germany are investigating the possible causes or contributing factors to the illnesses, including whether the anthrax or smallpox vaccines played a role. 

Grabenstein stated, though, that the anthrax vaccine was probably not to blame for several reasons, including: the cases are not clustered in time around vaccinations, the clusters of pneumonia cases have not occurred among other vaccinated people elsewhere, and worldwide hospitalization data shows that pneumonia occurs no more often in anthrax-vaccinated people than in unvaccinated people.

“It’s important to realize,” he added, “that in over 200 years of giving vaccinations, no vaccine has ever been shown to cause pneumonia.  While unusual cases need to be evaluated on their own merits, no vaccination has been scientifically linked to pneumonia in a cause-and-effect way.”

Other Causes Ruled Unlikely

A Defense Department spokesman earlier this month said no signs have been found that biological or chemical weapons, including anthrax and smallpox agents, played a role in the illnesses (see GSN, Aug. 6).

In a statement yesterday, the Office of the Army Surgeon General also ruled out several other potential causes for the illnesses and said the investigation ultimately may turn up no single cause for the 18 pneumonia cases that are currently under investigation.

“Currently, we have identified no infectious agent common to all of the cases.  Additionally, there is no evidence that any of the 18 serious pneumonia cases under review have been caused by exposure to chemical or biological weapons, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) or environmental toxins,” it said.

The office also said the number of pneumonia cases, including fatalities, is in line with previous annual numbers for Army personnel.

Independent Investigation Sought

Last week, United Press International reported an allegation lodged by Moses Lacy, father of Army Spc. Rachael Lacy, who reportedly died after she displayed symptoms of pneumonia.  “The common denominator (in the mysterious deaths) is smallpox and anthrax vaccinations,” Moses Lacy said.  “The government is covering this up and it is a doggone shame,” he said.

Army officials said Rachael Lacy’s case is not included in the regional investigation because she was not in Iraq or Southwest Asia.

The family of one of the two soldiers whose deaths are included in the investigation recently wrote Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld urging him to transfer the investigation’s direction to the civilian Centers for Disease Control.

The Centers for Disease Control currently are “collaborating” with the epidemiological teams in their investigations, according to the Office of the Army Surgeon General’s statement. 

The letter, from the family of Army Spc. Josh Neusche, questioned whether information on the pneumonia cases was being withheld.

“We as a family are concerned that we are not being told the truth,” the letter says.

The family requested access to medical and vaccine records, as well as numerous other pieces of information.

The parents of another soldier, Spc. Zeferino Colunga, who died in Germany after a reported diagnosis of leukemia, wrote an almost identical letter.

In a statement, Army officials said Colunga’s “death was unrelated to the recent cases of pneumonia in Southwest Asia.”

Vaccine Possibly Linked to Two Previous Cases

A study of the effects of the anthrax vaccine used on U.S. forces published in February 2002 by a civilian committee of experts did find that the anthrax vaccine might have caused two earlier pneumonia cases.

That study used data from 602 reports of “adverse events” suspected of being triggered by the vaccine given to nearly 400,000 military personnel.  The vaccine may have caused six medically serious events, including the pneumonia cases, it said.

The analysis concluded, though, that the number of serious events was not large or unusual.

“At this time, ongoing evaluation of [adverse events] reports does not suggest a high frequency or unusual pattern of serious or other medically important [adverse events],” the study said.

In yesterday’s statement, the Office of the Army Surgeon General, also suggested that the numbers of pneumonia cases and resulting fatalities in the region are not out of line with historical data.

“Army-wide, pneumonia serious enough to warrant hospitalization occurs in about 400 to 500 soldiers per year.  Based on this historical data, the approximately 100 total cases of pneumonia in CENTCOM [the Central Command, which operates in Southwest Asia] since March 1 do not exceed expectations.

“Death from pneumonia in a young, otherwise healthy population is rare, but it does occur: from 1998 through 2002, 17 soldiers died from pneumonia or from complications of pneumonia,” it said.

The Army would not provide statistical information, including data showing whether any of the soldiers who developed pneumonia had recently been given smallpox or anthrax vaccinations, saying such data was still under review.

The epidemiological teams “are currently validating the vaccination records; the long period between vaccination and admission is one of the factors that make vaccination unlikely to be a cause,” said Lyn Kukral, a spokeswoman for the surgeon general and the U.S. Army Medical Command.

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Smallpox:  Study Shows Smallpox Immunity Can Last Decades

Millions of U.S. residents who were immunized against smallpox before 1972 might still be immune to the disease, according to a study published yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 13).

“This puts us ahead of the curve.  Instead of having a population that is fully susceptible to a smallpox outbreak, this suggests we have some degree of ‘herd immunity,’” said Mark Slifka, an immunologist at Oregon Health & Science University.  Slifka led the study, which was published online by Nature Medicine.

Researchers studied more than 100 people immunized more than 30 years ago, when the smallpox vaccination was routine.  U.S. health officials have been trying in vain to organize a massive immunization program to defend emergency responders against a biological terrorism attack using smallpox.  That program has mostly faltered, but the new evidence suggests that the U.S. population might not be as susceptible as was previously thought.

U.S. officials said recently, however, that the new study will not alter their approach.

“I don’t think this study impacts on what optimal protection is,” said Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  “If you want to optimally protect, a person needs to be vaccinated within a relatively recent time frame,” he added (David Brown, Washington Post, Aug. 18).

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BWC:  Survey Finds Many Nations Lacking Required Treaty Legislation

By David Ruppe
Global Security Newswire

WASHINGTON — Many countries worldwide appear to lack laws to fully implement the 31-year-old multinational treaty banning biological weapons, according to a nongovernmental organization that has published the first comprehensive accounting of such activity.

The London-based group, the Verification Research, Training and Information Center (VERTIC), this week released a database of national implementation legislation for the 1972 Biological Weapons Convention.  The group will also release the information to a gathering of official technical experts meeting next week in Geneva to discuss the treaty.

The compilation shows that 31 of the 150 treaty parties, only 21 percent, responded to a VERTIC survey started one year ago.  The questionnaire asked for information about the enforcement measures each nation has adopted to ensure its compliance with the treaty that bans biological weapons development, production or possession.

The number and content of the responses suggest that many countries, mainly those that are less developed, have not passed legislation to ensure that the treaty is fully enforced on their territories, VERTIC Legal Researcher Angela Woodward said.

The nonresponse level was “very high in Africa, quite high in the Americas, and Asia, so our fairly educated guess from similar efforts under other treaties is that a lot of states just won’t have appropriate measures in place, unfortunately,” she said.

Woodward said, though, that many countries may have some laws in place but failed to respond to the survey because of translation issues, neglect or a lack of an office to handle such requests.  Copies of the VERTIC questionnaire were provided in English, Spanish and French, and a new Arabic version has been produced, she said.

The survey uses data from open sources as well, to provide information on implementing legislation for more than 90 countries, she said.

The United States, in particular, has urged other governments to pass such legislation, and an official last year cited comparable statistics for the Chemical Weapons Convention to urge nations to pass implementing legislation for that treaty.

“It’s certainly a very useful thing for them to be doing … because there has not been a comprehensive compilation of the implementing measures,” said a U.S. official praising VERTIC’s effort.

Respondents

Woodward said the majority of states that responded to the survey were Western  industrialized nations, but not exclusively.  Australia, Canada, China, Finland, Russia, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States have responded, while France and New Zealand have not.

Responses also were received from Belize, Colombia, Lithuania, Paraguay, Peru and Saint Kitts and Nevis.  She singled out Saint Kitts and Nevis for producing short, but excellent legislation containing strong law enforcement powers that smaller states might model and for adopting the legislation within three months of the treaty entering into force.

“They were really on the ball,” she said.

Woodward said some countries lacking implementing measures might have concluded that they are not needed because the countries lack a pharmaceutical sector or have never had a biological weapons program.

“That argument isn’t sufficient,” she said, adding that terrorists could choose countries without treaty enforcement powers as safe havens for illicit activities. She noted that U.N. Security Council Resolution 1373, passed in late September 2001, requires U.N. member states to take measures to prevent terrorists and their supporters from acting on their territories.

Woodward said she hopes the VERTIC database will help motivate countries to act.

“The main purpose of our project was to try to raise awareness of the obligation to adopt legislation,” she said.

“We’re hoping at [next week’s] meeting states will consider making their legislation more transparent, increase a willingness to cooperate and share experience … and actually provide assistance to states that request it,” she said.

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Smallpox:  Panel Says Prepare Smallpox Response, Shun Vaccinations

In a report issued yesterday, a top U.S. scientific panel reiterated its long-standing opposition to widespread, pre-emptive smallpox immunizations (see GSN, July 25).

The Institute of Medicine committee said the vaccine is too dangerous to use before an outbreak, and recommended that U.S. officials instead prepare an efficient and quick response to a biological terrorist attack.

“It does not make sense to give a vaccine with substantial risks against a disease that does not exist — in fact, that could be considered unethical,” said committee Chairman Brian Strom, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania (Elizabeth Olson, New York Times, Aug. 13).

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Anthrax:  Company Receives Contract to Clean Florida Anthrax Site

A private company has been awarded a contract to decontaminate the former American Media Inc. headquarters in Boca Raton, Fla. — the site of the initial anthrax infections during the 2001 anthrax attacks, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported today (see GSN, Sept. 16, 2002).

The firm, Consultants in Disease and Injury Control, plans to decontaminate the building using a fumigation process and high-powered vacuums to clean surfaces, according to the Journal-Constitution.  The company has also developed its own method of cleaning hard-to-reach areas, such as plumbing fixtures, to make sure all lingering anthrax spores are destroyed.

Real estate developer David Rustine, who purchased the building for only $40,000, said that, once the decontamination is completed, he plans to be one of the first people to walk through the building — unprotected.

“It will hopefully be the cleanest building in Florida, one of the cleanest in the nation,” Rustine said (Greg Bluestein, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Aug. 13).

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