U.S. Persian Gulf Forces To Get Anthrax Shots Protection In Light Of Possible Iraq Threat

To protect U.S. forces from a possible biological attack by Iraq, military doctors will begin vaccinating all 36,000 troops in the Persian Gulf against the deadly airborne bacteria anthrax.

The decision Tuesday by Defense Secretary William Cohen steps up a previously planned effort to inoculate all active-duty U.S. forces, which was to begin this summer. But, fearing a terrorist attack or direct strike by Iraq, Cohen ordered vaccinations in the gulf to begin this week.

Those first shots, however, won’t offer immediate immunity, gained only after six injections given over 18 months. The vaccine won’t protect against genetically engineered strains of bacteria. And pregnant Marines, sailors and troops will be sent home rather than undergo inoculation.

Anthrax occurs naturally and is a constant hazard for livestock workers. But U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that 10 nations, including Iraq, have tried to turn the bacteria’s spores into an aerosol weapon that enters the lungs and causes flu-like symptoms. Untreated, it kills 95 percent of its victims within 72 hours.

“This is an overwhelming infectious process,” said Lt. Gen. Ronald Blanck, the Army’s surgeon general, who will oversee the vaccinations.

The Clinton administration plans to keep troops in the gulf to ensure that Iraq cooperates with the United Nations inspectors who have been monitoring Iraq’s chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs since the end of the Gulf War in 1991. Pentagon spokesman Kenneth Bacon said troops would remain in the region for “weeks and months.”

President Clinton on Tuesday used their presence to threaten Iraq: “No promise of peace and no policy of patience can be without its limits. Iraq’s words must be matched by deeds. The world is watching.”

The vaccinations are mandatory for all gulf troops. Their shot records will be entered in a global military database to remind those who leave the region to continue their shots. Yearly boosters are necessary.

The Pentagon estimates that the vaccine costs $3.50 per dose; all six shots cost about $21. Immunizing all active duty and some reserve troops, about 2.4 million people, will cost $130 million and take six years.

The vaccine, manufactured by the Michigan Biological Products Institute in Lansing, has been widely used since the early 1970s and was given to 130,000 U.S. personnel during the Gulf War.

The anthrax vaccine has never been linked to the mysterious collection of headaches, nausea and unexplained fatigue that thousands of veterans have exhibited since the war.

Seeking to avoid the Gulf War experience, Cohen wanted to wait until June to begin vaccinations so that outside experts could evaluate the vaccine before giving it to troops.

But at the insistence of Marine Gen. Anthony Zinni, the gulf commander, Cohen agreed to accelerate the evaluation and go ahead with the shots now.

The vaccine won’t be fully effective until troops complete the entire series of shots. Until then, gulf troops would rely on a mix of the initial vaccinations to build resistance, and doses of antibiotics in case of an attack. The combination is less reliable than immunity, Blanck said.

The immunizations are expected to protect troops against known strains of wild anthrax. But if Iraq has succeeded in perfecting new, genetically engineered strains, the shots won’t be effective, he said. So far, Pentagon officials don’t believe Iraq has succeeded in this complicated venture.

But recent research suggests it’s possible to build a strain that will beat vaccines. Four anthrax strains recently were discovered near Sverdlosk, Russia, by scientists at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.

“I don’t discount it,” Blanck said. “It is more than theoretically possible.”

And because of a lack of research about the vaccine’s effect on pregnant women, pregnant female troops in the gulf will be ordered out by the U.S. Central Command, Blanck said.