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American Forces Press Service

Don't Equate Anthrax Shots and PB Controversy, Cohen Says

 
 By Jim Garamone
 
American Forces Press Service

 DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- DoD's ongoing anthrax vaccination 
 program and its use of pyridostigmine bromide during the 1991 
 Gulf War aren't the same -- and no one should equate the two, 
 Defense Secretary William Cohen said Oct. 20.
 There is no correlation between the anthrax vaccine and PB, 
 Cohen said during a press conference here. Anthrax vaccine has 
 been used in the civilian community since 1970, when the Food 
 and Drug Administration approved its use, he said. Its side 
 effects are similar to those of flu and other common 
 immunizations -- they're mostly mild and go away on their own 
 and known serious ones are rare.
 "What we have to do is make the best possible policy judgments," 
 Cohen said. "Given the potential for our forces to be exposed to 
 an anthrax threat, which is one of the most deadly they could 
 encounter, it would be irresponsible not to insist they be 
 properly protected."
 The secretary last year required that independent experts test 
 the anthrax vaccine and approve it before he would allow the 
 vaccination program to proceed. "In order to show that I believe 
 absolutely in the safety, in the veracity of the vaccine, I've 
 had six of the vaccine injections to date," he said.
 Cohen said he knows some critics argue that service members 
 should be allowed to choose to take the shots. "You would not 
 send one of your warriors into the field without a helmet saying 
 'I don't want to wear a helmet,'" he said. "You would not send a 
 soldier into the field without a flak jacket, saying 'I prefer 
 to have an open shirt.'
 The pyridostigmine bromide situation is different. The 
 investigational drug was not fully FDA-licensed but was the only 
 available protection against soman, a deadly nerve agent known 
 to be present in the Persian Gulf region before and during the 
 war. At the time, soman was considered a greater risk than PB's 
 possible side effects, DoD officials said, estimating 250,000 
 troops received packets of the drug.
 The Pentagon released a RAND Corp. report Oct. 19 that suggested 
 there could be a connection between PB and Gulf War illnesses 
 and called for further study because available information is 
 inconclusive. The RAND study speculated hot, stressful 
 conditions such as Desert Storm might cause the brain to absorb 
 larger-than-normal amounts of PB, which in turn might affect the 
 brain chemical that regulates sleep, pain, mood, muscle function 
 and thinking.
 

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct1999/n10201999_9910204.html



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