THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 3, 1996 TAG: 9610030357
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORT
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: 86 lines
Military personnel in Hampton Roads and around the world may soon begin receiving a series of shots to protect them against anthrax, a deadly bacteria that up to a dozen countries have the capacity to use as a germ warfare agent.
Reversing earlier opposition, senior military officials have tentatively endorsed a plan to vaccinate all 1.5 million Americans in uniform against anthrax. The inoculation program would be the Pentagon's first against a germ warfare agent, Defense Department officials said.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff and Defense Secretary William J. Perry still must formally sign off on the $120 million program, but its endorsement by senior commanders removes a key hurdle to the plan and reflects heightened Pentagon concern about the prospect of biological attack. Iraq, Russia and as many as 10 other countries are said by U.S. officials to have at least the capability to load spores of anthrax into weapons, although no country is known to have released the bacteria on a battlefield.
No timetable has been set for beginning the injections, pending final approval of the program. A defense official suggested Wednesday that it would be some time before mass inoculations could begin, if only because the Pentagon would have to acquire massive quantities of the anthrax vaccine.
The inoculation program consists of six shots; the first three are administered two weeks apart, with the remainder coming at 6-, 12-, and 18-month intervals. And to maintain protection, troops would get an annual booster.
The anthrax vaccine is approved by the Food and Drug Administration and has been in use for more than 25 years among veterinarians, laboratory technicians and others who work with animals considered at risk for the disease. A defense official said the only apparent side effect is a few days of soreness in the area around the injection.
Some military leaders have raised questions about the safety of the vaccine, given speculation that some of the ``gulf war syndrome'' maladies suffered by U.S. troops serving in the 1991 war with Iraq may have been caused by one or a combination of several vaccines administered. But research so far has shown no link between the anthrax vaccine and illnesses among Persian Gulf War veterans.
Military leaders also initially were dubious about the need for the vaccine, suggesting the United States could deter an enemy from launching an anthrax attack simply by threatening massive retaliation - an approach that worked in the Persian Gulf War in preventing Iraq from using biological and other unconventional weapons.
Others favored work on a multipurpose vaccine that could counter a number of biological warfare agents. Such a vaccine is not expected to be ready for years, however.
But some senior civilian Defense officials, who ardently support the vaccination plan, ultimately persuaded the military leaders during months of internal review that U.S. forces could be devastated by an anthrax attack and could be safely protected by immunization.
``The whole area of biological warfare was one not very familiar to the chiefs,'' a senior defense official said. ``It's been a gradual process for the military to recognize the seriousness of the threat and understand the kind of protection that vaccination provides.''
Anthrax tops the U.S. government's list of biological warfare threats. An infectious disease that normally afflicts animals, especially cattle and sheep, anthrax can be produced in a dry form ideal for storing, and can be ground into tiny particles that could be inhaled by humans. As little as one one-hundredth of a millionth of a gram is enough to kill.
Anthrax spores are very stable and may remain viable for many years in soil and water. When inhaled, they cause severe pneumonia and death within a week.
Because of limited vaccine supplies, only about 150,000 of the more than 500,000 U.S. soldiers sent in 1990 and 1991 to evict Iraqi forces from Kuwait in the gulf war were inoculated against anthrax amid fears, never realized, that Iraqi President Saddam Hussein might unleash the germ.
Roughly 5,000 U.S. military personnel have continued to receive protection against anthrax because of their assignments. These include medical and emergency response teams, groups that handle hazardous material and some special forces units.
Periodically this century, reports have surfaced of one nation or another developing anthrax weapons. In World War II, a Japanese military unit experimented with the bacteria on Russian and Chinese war prisoners, resulting in more than 1,000 deaths. In 1979, a cloud of anthrax spores was released accidentally from a Soviet military research facility in Sverdlovsk, killing several dozen people.
After the gulf war, United Nations inspectors in Iraq were startled to discover how extensive and advanced Iraqi efforts had been to turn anthrax and other deadly biological agents into weapons.
KEYWORDS: CHEMICAL WARFARE BIOLOGICAL WARFARE by CNB