Anthrax Vaccine Program Criticized
By Harry Dunphy, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press
January 16, 2001 6:04 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AP) - Congressional investigators contend the
State Department's voluntary anthrax immunization program for
employees and their families was poorly implemented and wasteful.
The program, initially designed for embassies in the Persian
Gulf region to meet a possible anthrax attack by Iraqi missiles,
has been suspended because there are inadequate quantities of the
vaccine, the General Accounting Office said.
The report also questioned the need for the program, saying
it is unknown how vulnerable embassies are to chemical and
biological attacks. The department said it will reassess the need
for the program after obtaining a more complete threat assessment.
Separately, the GAO criticized an earlier State Department
program that placed some anthrax vaccine in Middle East areas
that might be subject to attack.
``The State Department's prepositioning of anthrax vaccine at
diplomatic posts in 1998 and the voluntary anthrax vaccine
immunization program have been poorly implemented,'' the GAO
report said.
When no Iraqi attack occurred, 80 percent of the initial
shipment of 8,000 doses of anthrax vaccine sent to eight U.S.
embassies in the Gulf region expired and had to be destroyed.
``State Department attempts to minimize such waste by
redistributing the unused vaccine to the Department of Defense (news
- web sites) to be used elsewhere failed because it could not
provide assurances that the vaccine was properly stored and
refrigerated,'' the report said.
It said that as of last July, no anthrax vaccine recipients
at an unidentified Gulf region pilot project site had received
the full series of six immunizations over 18 months, and adverse
reactions may have been underreported because there was no active
monitoring.
The State Department said it was surprised GAO report's title:
``Serious Problems in the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program.''
It said the report contained ``multiple statements which we
believe reflect misunderstandings on the part of the
investigators...that could potentially mislead readers.''
The Defense Department last month announced a cutback in its
anthrax vaccine program - limiting it to troops going to the
Persian Gulf - to conserve supplies. It said the vaccine's sole
manufacturer is unlikely to produce more until late this year.
Leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the
House International Relations Committee requested the GAO report.
It was delivered Dec. 13.
The State Department in May 1999 began the voluntary anthrax
immunization program for employees and their families, based on
its interpretation of an intelligence assessment that U.S.
diplomatic establishments abroad are threatened by potential
chemical and biological attack.
But some participants in that assessment told the GAO they
received only 48 hours to complete the review.
State Department security officials and Central Intelligence
Agency analysts ``agree they have no clear evidence that U.S.
missions or interests overseas are threatened by foreign state or
terrorist attacks using biological or chemical agents at this
time,'' the report said.
Source: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20010116/pl/anthrax_diplomats_1.html
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