New report calls for protecting at-risk civilians from anthrax.

2002 DEC 4 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- A panel of leading bioterrorism experts warned that the United States still lacks an articulated preparedness plan for immediate immunizations of at-risk civilians, a strategic anthrax vaccine stockpile, and a national consensus on how the FDA-approved anthrax vaccine will be dispensed and to whom.

The six-member expert panel released a new report - Protecting Americans Against Anthrax: The Need for an Effective Defense - which points to the need for the civilian equivalent of the U.S. military's anthrax vaccine immunization program (AVIP) to assess which civilians are at greatest risk of an anthrax attack. Issued as a nationwide call to action, this report declares that the United States bioterror infrastructure cannot labor under a false sense of security when anthrax spores can be so effectively weaponized and made resistant to antibiotics, which would render the current postexposure treatment useless.

"Terrorism by means of weaponized anthrax is not theoretical. We already have experienced terrifying, fatal attacks on U.S. soil," said Major General Randall (Randy) L. West, USMC (Ret.), one of the members of the expert panel. "Whether the environment is a theater of war in the Middle East, involves U.S. interests abroad, or exists in cities or towns within the United States, it is imperative that the nation takes the steps necessary to establish effective procedures and counter-procedures before the next anthrax attack occurs."

BioPort Corp., manufacturer of the anthrax vaccine BioThrax, commissioned the development of this report as a way to assess the state of preparedness against another anthrax attack and to gain consensus on the future role of the anthrax vaccine.

Addressing the need for a national strategy on civilian use of the anthrax vaccine, the report states "there is now a new understanding of how easily anthrax can be weaponized and, when inhaled, made far more potent than the deadliest chemical warfare agent."

Moreover, the expert panel cautioned that anthrax spores could be altered to produce a strain that is resistant to ciprofloxacin and other antibiotics. Compounding the problem, the panel cited new research data revealing that less than half of the people exposed to anthrax completed the entire schedule of antibiotic treatment. Of those persons taking at least 1 dose of antibiotics, but stopping before 60 days, 43% stated that adverse events were the most important reason they stopped. As a result, the report cautioned against continuing a national strategy that relies solely on antibiotics for protecting people from inhalational anthrax.

"Our government must act quickly to conduct a timely, comprehensive assessment of those civilians at greatest risk of exposure to anthrax. Once completed, that assessment should allow us to immediately offer vaccine to those at risk - particularly based on what we know about the solid safety profile of the anthrax vaccine and its ability to protect," said Gilbert Ross, MD, medical director of the American Council on Science and Health and a member of the panel.