Detrick vaccine tested.

2003 AUG 13 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- Work done at the U.S. Army's research institute at Fort Detrick, Maryland, has led to several clinical trials across the country for a possible new anthrax vaccine.

The new vaccine would require only a few injections, compared with the six shots required with the existing vaccine, researchers said.

Ever since the Food and Drug Administration approved the 30-year-old vaccine, scientists have been trying to improve it. Efforts increased after letters laced with anthrax were mailed to government and news media offices in fall 2001, killing 5 people and sickening 17 others.

"It's fortunate that the work was ongoing," said Dr. Arthur Friedlander, a scientist at the Fort Detrick's Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases. "Because of the events of fall of 2001 and events in the Gulf War, there is the recognition of potential need for a vaccine for the civilian community to protect against anthrax as a bioterrorism weapon."

Dr. Steven Hatfill, who once worked at Fort Detrick, has been labeled "a person of interest" by Attorney General John Ashcroft and is under 24-hour FBI surveillance. Hatfill denies any connection to the attacks and hasn't been charged.

At Fort Detrick, Friedlander's research team singled out the protein in Bacillus anthracis - the bacterium that causes anthrax - that induces antibodies that neutralize anthrax toxins. The team then produced the protein, which is called "protective antigen," in a form ...