Surveillance reveals anthrax vaccine safety an issue

Surveillance for Safety After Immunization: Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) --- United States, 1991--2001

Surveillance Summaries

January 24, 2003 / 52(ss01);1-24

This CDC compilation of adverse event reporting information:

www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5201a1.htm - Vol 52, No 1;1



tells us that anthrax vaccine had the highest reporting rate of adverse events for any currently licensed US vaccine, on page 15 of the CDC brochure (Table 3).

This rate is 91.8 reports per 100,000 doses distributed. It equals 3.7 reports per thousand vaccine recipients, since soldiers receive a total of 4 doses, on average. The only two vaccine with higher reporting rates in this table, Lyme and Rotavirus vaccines, were taken off the market due to safety concerns.

Yet DOD continues to claim that anthrax vaccine is as safe as any other vaccine.

Reply to Questions Posed by the House Veterans Affairs Committee regarding Gulf War Illnesses

To read the questions and answers, click here.