News & Perspective

(CIDRAP News) – Researchers from the University of Michigan recently reported promising results in animal tests of an inhaled anthrax vaccine, offering hope for a vaccine that would cause fewer side effects and be easier to store and administer than the licensed vaccine.

(CIDRAP News) – An anthrax outbreak in the small African country of Guinea Bissau has killed 4 people and sickened more than 80.

Thirteen patients have been hospitalized, according to a World Organization for Animal Health (OIE) news release issued this month.

(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.

(CIDRAP News) – A study focusing on the two plasmids, or extrachromosomal DNA rings, usually found in Bacillus anthracis cells helps explain why different varieties of anthrax differ significantly in virulence.

(CIDRAP News) – An anthrax vaccine made by combining a component of the anthrax toxin with killed anthrax spores has been tested successfully in animals, according to a report in the February issue of Infection and Immunity. The report suggests that a similar vaccine for humans could be safer and more effective than the acellular vaccine now in use.