Anthrax Vaccine Linked to Gulf War
Syndrome
By Meryl Nass, M.D.
Until 1998, there existed
no published papers that explored whether receiving anthrax vaccine was
related to Gulf War illnesses (GWI). Instead, several expert committees (their
members lacking experience with anthrax) were asked to comment on whether
anthrax vaccine was likely to be a cause of GWI. The committees were given DOD
briefings, did not review the literature (at the time there were no published
studies of safety or efficacy for the licensed anthrax vaccine), concluded
that a relationship was unlikely, and then recommended against further
research (1).
Studying American veterans was particularly difficult because many were not
told whether they were given anthrax vaccine, and the vaccinations were
specifically not entered into service members' shot records. Other centralized
vaccine records have since been lost. Despite concerns about the
investigational status of anthrax vaccine when used for biological warfare (an
IMD was filed in 1996 to add inhalation anthrax to the approved indications
for the vaccine), no informed consent was obtained from service members at the
time of the Gulf War, and no waiver of informed consent was sought from the
FDA.
The Canadian Department of National Defense (DND) hired a consulting company
(Goss Gilroy, Inc.) to study the health of Canadian Gulf War Veterans and look
at various exposures. Their report was published on the DND website (2). They
found a significant relationship between receiving non-routine (biological
warfare) immunizations and developing chronic fatigue, a very common symptom
of GWI (2).
In 1999 a British study examined a large number of Gulf War exposures in three
large cohorts of British Gulf War veterans, non-deployed Gulf-era veterans and
Bosnia veterans. They found that for both the Gulf War and the Bosnia
veterans, receiving anthrax vaccine was related to developing an illness
consistent with Gulf War Syndrome (GWI). They wrote, "vaccinations were
associated with the CDC multi-symptom syndrome in the Gulf War cohort"
(3).
This group published a follow-up paper in the British Medical Journal that
claimed that only Gulf War veterans who received vaccines after deployment,
not before, showed this relationship. However, they later retracted this
conclusion, and acknowledged that the timing of vaccination did not affect the
relationship between vaccination and GWI.
A study of Kansas Gulf War veterans was published in November, 2000 which
examined whether soldiers had received vaccines specific to their deployment
or planned deployment (4). This study also found that deployment vaccines were
related to GWI. Thirty-four percent of Gulf War veterans met the author's
definition of GWI, while only 4% of non-deployed, non-vaccinated Gulf-era
veterans met the definition. However, 12% of Kansas Gulf-era veterans who were
vaccinated in preparation for deployment, but then were not sent to the Gulf,
also met the GWI definition. The paper concluded, "Vaccines used during
the war may be a contributing factor."
A second study of British Gulf War veterans was published in April, 2001. This
study looked at the relationship between various Gulf War exposures and
subsequent health. It did not look at specific deployment vaccines, but
instead evaluated the number of vaccinations received at the time of the Gulf
War in relation to GWI. It said, "Consistent, specific, and credible
relations, warranting further investigation, were found between health indices
and two exposures, the reported number of inoculations and days handling
pesticides (5)."
The Veterans Administration collected data on thousands of Gulf War veterans
who presented for evaluation of GWI. Although unpublished, the data were
presented at a conference on GWI in January, 2001 (6). The VA asked veterans
if they thought they had received anthrax vaccine at the time of the Gulf War,
among many other potential exposures, and inquired about symptoms of illness.
Those who believed they had received anthrax vaccine were twice as likely to
report a large variety of symptoms as those who believed they were not
vaccinated.
These are all the data relating vaccines and Gulf War illnesses that are
available in the open literature. Every study that examined the question of
whether vaccines in general, or specific non-routine vaccines, or anthrax
vaccine alone may have contributed to GWS, has found a positive relationship.
The French Ministry of Defense recently convened an advisory committee to
study GWI, chaired by Professor Roger Salamon. This committee reviewed the
existing world literature on GWI, and suggested that "multiple
vaccinations given during the war, particularly those for anthrax, botulinum
and plague, seem associated with an excess of (GWI) signs and symptoms"
(7).
There are no published long-term adverse event data from the anthrax vaccine
immunization program, which began vaccinating service members in March, 1998.
However, the unpublished study done by Captain Jean Tanner at Dover Air Force
Base suggests that recent anthrax vaccine recipients face similar medical
problems as the Gulf War veterans (8).
Meryl Nass, MD
Parkview Hospital
Brunswick, ME 04011
Tel: 207-865-7000
mnass@anthraxvaccine.org
References
1. Nass M. Testimony to the House Committee
on Government Reform, National Security Subcommittee, April 29, 1999.
http://www.house.gov/reform/na/hearings/testimony/nass2.htm
2. Goss Gilroy Inc.Health Study of Canadian
Forces Personnel Involved in the 1991 Conflict in the Persian Gulf. Volume I.
http://www.dnd.ca/menu/press/Reports/Health/health_study_e_vol1_TOC.htm
3. Unwin C et al. Health of UK servicemen
who served in the Persian Gulf War. The Lancet1 999; 353:169-178.
4. Steele L. Prevalence and patterns of
Gulf War Illness in Kansas veterans: Association of symptoms with
characteristics of person, place, and time of military service. Am J Epidemiol
2000; 152:991-1001.
5. Cherry N et al. Health and exposures of
United Kingdom Gulf War veterans. Part II: The relation of health to exposure.
Occup Environ Med 2001; 58: 299-306.
6. Mahan CM, Kang HK, Ishii EK et al.
Anthrax vaccination and self-reported symptoms, functional status and medical
conditions in the national health survey of Gulf War era veterans and their
families. Environmental Epidemiology Service, Veterans Health Administration,
Washington, DC. Presented January 25, 2001 @ Research Working Group: Military
and Veterans Health Coordinating Board Conference on Illnesses among Gulf War
Veterans: A Decade of Scientific Research. Alexandria VA.
7. Salamon R et al. Rapport de Mission du
Groupe de travail charge d'analyser les donnees sanitaires relatives aux
anciens combatants francaiis de la guerre du Golfe. http://www.defense.gouv.fr/actualites/dossier/d93/dossierintro.htm
Machine translation into English can be found at http://www.gulflink.org/france/RAPPORTa.doc
8.
http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/Report.pdf http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/data.pdf
http://www.anthraxvaccine.org/remarks.pdf##
_______________________________________________________________
Garth
Nicolson, PhD, is the President, Chief Scientific Officer and a Research
Professor at the Institute for Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach,
California. Mike Williams is For
further information on BW and illnesses associated with vaccines and the Gulf
War and how to obtain testing and treatment information, please consult the
Institute for Molecular Medicine website: www.immed.org.
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