News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) formally stated yesterday that the licensed anthrax vaccine is safe and effective for preventing all forms of anthrax, including inhalational anthrax, thereby undermining the rationale of a recent court injunction that halted the Pentagon's anthrax vaccination program.

(CIDRAP News) – In response to a federal judge's order this week, the Department of Defense (DoD) said it would suspend the anthrax vaccination program for military personnel.

"The Department will stop giving anthrax vaccinations until the legal situation is clarified," DoD officials said in a statement dated yesterday.

(CIDRAP News) – Stating that US soldiers should not be used as "guinea pigs for experimental drugs," a federal district judge in Washington, DC, yesterday granted a preliminary injunction against the Department of Defense's (DoD's) mandatory anthrax vaccination program.

Dec 31, 2002 (CIDRAP News) – Individuals receiving smallpox vaccine should wait 3 weeks before donating blood, according to guidance issued yesterday by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The recommendations are being issued as a precautionary measure to reduce the "very slight risk" of bloodborne exposure to vaccinia virus in certain patient populations, according to the agency.

(CIDRAP News) – A combination of vaccines that included smallpox and anthrax might have contributed to the death of a young Army reservist last April, the Department of Defense (DoD) announced today.

(CIDRAP News) – Recent figures from the US Department of Defense (DoD) indicate a higher rate of myopericarditis (heart inflammation) cases among military personnel following smallpox vaccination than previously reported, though the complication remains relatively rare.

(CIDRAP News) – Because of the risk of heart inflammation, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended yesterday that the federal smallpox immunization program not expand now beyond smallpox response teams to the larger population of health workers and emergency responders.

(CIDRAP News) – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has reported three more cases of heart problems in recent smallpox shot recipients, including two cases of heart inflammation and one heart attack. The cases bring the number of civilians who experienced cardiac problems after vaccination to 10 since the immunization program began in January.

(CIDRAP News) – Federal agencies have reported four more cases of heart inflammation in military personnel who received smallpox shots, including one severe case. The report came as officials advised the states to suspend smallpox shots for people with three or more major cardiac risk factors as well as for those with known heart disease.

(CIDRAP News) – A 55-year-old National Guard member died of a heart attack Mar 26, 5 days after getting a smallpox shot, a Department of Defense official reported today.