Last Updated

13 Jan 2003

Source: Newsday, January 18, 2002.

Response on Anthrax Vaccine Disappoints

By Ridgely Ochs, STAFF WRITER

The scientist in charge of the federal government's program to dispense the anthrax vaccine to postal workers and others who may have been exposed to the deadly bacteria says he is disappointed by how few have chosen to take it.

"It is lower than I would have liked to have seen," said Dr. Bradley Perkins, the principal investigator on the anthrax vaccine program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta.

More than 10,000 people, including postal, other government and media employees, were given 60 days of antibiotics because of fears they were exposed to anthrax sent through the mail. Because of concerns about the resiliency of the bacteria's spores, the CDC in late December offered these people an additional 40 days of the antibiotic Cipro or 40 days of antibiotics plus three shots of the anthrax vaccine over a one-month period. The reason for offering antibiotics plus the vaccine was to provide a "bridge" while the body built immunity from the vaccine.

So far, 1,467 people, including 244 in New York City, have chosen to take the added 40 days of Cipro, according to CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben. Only 182, including 13 in New York, have opted for the Cipro plus the vaccine, she said.

While the vaccine has been approved by the Food and Drug Administration for use in a six-dose regimen since the 1970s and has a good safety record, it has not been approved for preventing anthrax in those who may have been exposed already. This is why so few have opted for it, Perkins said.

Because it's an off-label use offered by the government, those opting to take the vaccine are actually part of a clinical trial.

As a result, the public health message has been a complicated one. The head of the CDC, Dr. Jeffrey Koplan, was quoted last week in news reports as telling postal workers that while he would not hesitate to take the vaccine if he had had significant exposure to the disease, "if I were in your shoes and had taken 60 days of antibiotics and felt lousy from it, my answer might not be the same."

For William Smith, president of the New York Metro Area Postal Union, this was enough to steer him away from endorsing the vaccine.

There also has been uncertainty about production of the anthrax vaccine itself. The nation's only maker, BioPort Corp. of Lansing, Mich., has been unable to get FDA approval to make and ship the vaccine because of production problems. The FDA sent the company a letter late last month saying that it has met production requirements at its laboratory but a separate facility in Washington state that puts the vaccine into vials still needs approval.