The Anthrax Vaccine
Shortly after terrorists attacked the United States on September 11, 2001, several letters containing weapon-grade anthrax spores were sent to two U.S. senators and other news agencies. Five people died from anthrax infection, and seventeen others were sickened by the contaminated letters. Even though the casualties were small, it sent a wave of panic and fear throughout the country.
The anthrax bacterium makes an ideal biological weapon. The bacterium is one of the few that can form spores. The biological advantage of having spores is that these spores can remain dormant in a hostile environment for a very long time. Unlike most other bacteria, anthrax spores can remain viable on almost any surface for many decades. Once an unlucky person touches, inhales, or swallows the spores, the spores germinate and the anthrax bacteria spread throughout the body. Even a very small amount of spores can cause a fatal infection. These properties of anthrax spores make it a very effective biological weapon.
Fact
The only shortcoming of anthrax as a biological weapon is that anthrax cannot spread from person to person very easily. Only when a person succumbs to anthrax can his corpse can become a vessel for further transmission. Direct transmission can occur through contaminated clothing, but anthrax outbreak is rare.
Anthrax infection manifests in three forms. If a person contracts the infection by touching the spores, the skin becomes infected and the skin turns black. The infection can subsequently spread to the bloodstream. One out of five people with the anthrax skin infection is expected to die, but antibiotic treatment is most effective for this type of anthrax.
If the spore is inhaled, a person experiences mild fever, shortness of breath, and fast breathing at first. A few days later, almost 100 percent of infected persons die. The inhaled form of anthrax is the most serious and almost always fatal. When anthrax is made into a biological weapon, it is designed to be inhaled by victims, causing the greatest casualties in very short period of time. Even though antibiotic is available for the inhaled form of anthrax, most people die despite treatment.
Finally, if a person swallows the spores in contaminated food, intestinal bleeding, diarrhea, and vomiting of blood result. Half of the people with the intestinal form of anthrax are expected to die. Treatment for intestinal anthrax is available, but the therapy usually is ineffective.
Currently, anthrax is extremely rare in the United States (about a dozen cases are reported annually) due to a mass immunization program for farm animals. Nevertheless, anthrax spores are found in the soil all over the world, including the United States. The most common way of catching anthrax in this country is through direct contact with animal products (such as leather and wool), that are imported from other parts of the world where anthrax remains common.
Essential
There are more than eighty strains of the anthrax bacteria. Some strains are more aggressive than others, and the most aggressive strains are selected in the laboratory to be made into biological weapons.
The anthrax vaccine was one of the earliest vaccines invented. Back in 1881, French scientist Louis Pasteur (the founding father of modern microbiology) came up with the first working vaccine against anthrax. Since that time, the anthrax vaccine is mainly used in livestock in this country. In 1954, the first anthrax vaccine suitable for humans became available. The only time anthrax vaccine is administered to humans is in the armed forces. American and British soldiers routinely receive a version of the anthrax vaccine to protect them from potential attack in biological warfare.
