Anthrax Shots Made Australian Troops Sick

[Emillereid]

By Michael Perry

SYDNEY (Reuters) Feb 23 - Australian troops headed for Iraq in 2003 received compulsory anthrax shots without being told the vaccine had caused serious side effects in troops sent earlier to Afghanistan, the defence health chief said on Saturday.



Anthrax vaccinations were suspended for two months after many of the 1,500 troops deployed to Afghanistan in 2002 showed debilitating side effects, said Air Commodore Tony Austin, director general of Defence Health Service.



Austin said troops sent to Iraq were not informed of what had happened to the Afghan soldiers, as that would only have raised their stress levels. "We were in a position where all we would have been able to tell them was that there had been a problem," Austin told reporters after a newspaper reported the anthrax story.



"We had not been able to identify a cause from that and we had absolutely no evidence to suggest that we were likely to see that again, based on overseas experience and our own experience when we reinstituted the programme in Iraq," he said.....

http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/469992?mpid=25222

When are they going to stop using soldiers as guinea pigs for this anthrax vaccine?

[Columbia]

1. Not much story here

"Austin said the side effects included increased pain and swelling in the affected arm, tiredness and lethargy, adding that in almost all cases the symptoms cleared within 48 hours and troops were able to resume normal duties."

Typical, non-debilitating side effects associated with the anthrax vaccine.

[Emillereid]

2. There's a contradiction in the story -- on the one hand

the side effects are described as debilitating for 75% of 1500 troops sent to Afghanistan and that they fell ill, but then says that the side effects cleared up for most in 2 days. However, other reports concerning the anthrax vaccine have associated its use with longer term effects for some -- for some the long term effects begin later and for some just after the shot.One would think that with all the suspicions raised concerning the safety of the anthrax vaccine, and the unlikelihood of these soldiers having contact with anthrax, that it would be best the err on the side of caution and do more exhaustive studies on the stuff before giving it wholesale to these young people.