Vaccines May be Involved In Soldier's Deaths

[Guest guest]

ARMY WEIGHS VACCINE LINK IN TROOPS' DEATH

By Mark Benjamin

UPI

August 6, 2003

 

http://www.upi.com/view.cfm?StoryID=20030805-063415-2857r

 

WASHINGTON, Aug. 6 (UPI) -- The Army will consider whether the anthrax or

other vaccine could be causing a cluster of pneumonia cases among soldiers

in Iraq and southwestern Asia, an official said Wednesday.

 

Col. Robert DeFraites of the Army Surgeon General's office told United Press

International that the Pentagon would look into whether vaccines, among

other factors, might have triggered the pneumonia that has killed two

soldiers and sickened 100.

 

" Among all of the possible causes or contributing factors, we are looking at

the immunizations that the soldiers received as well, " DeFraites told UPI

Wednesday. " It is premature to say that there is any relationship at all. "

 

The Pentagon announced Tuesday it is investigating the cases in search of a

common factor, but did not mention vaccines as a possibility.

 

A co-author of a government-sponsored study of possible side effects from

the anthrax vaccine told UPI Tuesday evening that the Army should look at

whether that vaccine is behind the cluster of pneumonia cases. That study

last year found the vaccine was the " possible or probable " cause of

pneumonia in two soldiers.

 

" As physicians, I would think they would be looking at all possible causes.

I would think vaccines would be part of that, " said Dr. John L. Sever of

George Washington University Medical School, who was one of six authors of

the study.

 

Under a 1998 law, the military is supposed to take sample of soldiers' blood

before and after deploying. One Gulf War illness expert said Wednesday that

the Pentagon should use the samples to see if the anthrax vaccine is to

blame.

 

" We need them to investigate the role of vaccines as aggressively as

everything else in order to rule it in or out, " said Steve Robinson,

executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center.

 

" The question is, did these soldiers get their blood screened? " said

Robinson. " It is my opinion that they missed a large portion of the soldiers

who deployed for this war. "

 

Last year's anthrax vaccine study, printed in the May 2002 issue of

Pharmacoepidemiology and Drug Safety, found that the vaccine was the

" possible or probable " cause of pneumonia among two soldiers, according to

George Washington's Sever. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

convened the group, called the Anthrax Vaccine Expert Committee, which

studied 602 reports of possible reactions to the vaccine among nearly

400,000 troops who received it, Sever said.

 

In addition to identifying pneumonia and flu-like symptoms among troops who

received the vaccine, the group also looked at four other cases of

potentially serious reactions, including severe back pain and two soldiers

who had sudden difficulty breathing in a possible allergic reaction to the

vaccine.

 

Sever described the two cases of pneumonia as " wheezing and difficulty

breathing going into a pneumonia-like picture. "

 

To conduct the study, the Anthrax Vaccine Expert Committee examined reports

from the U.S. military to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention;

they are anecdotal reports and do not necessarily show a cause-and-effect

relationship.

 

DeFraites said the two deaths under investigation by the Army Surgeon

General occurred in June and July and that both soldiers had been in Iraq.

He said the investigation began as soon as the first death occurred.

 

In a case apparently not included in that total, 22-year-old Army specialist

Rachael Lacy of Lynwood, Ill., died at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.,

on April 4 of what one doctor diagnosed as pneumonia, after receiving

anthrax and smallpox vaccinations but without ever having been deployed.

 

Dr. Eric Pfeifer, the Minnesota coroner who performed the autopsy, told the

Army Times that the smallpox and anthrax vaccines " may have " contributed to

her death. " It's just very suspicious in my mind...that she's healthy, gets

the vaccinations and then dies a couple weeks later. " He listed

" post-vaccine " problems on the death certificate.

 

Moses Lacy, Rachael Lacy's father, told the Army Times that she called in

March and said she had chest pains and breathing problems and had been

diagnosed with pneumonia.

 

One service member who was deployed to Kuwait and received the four-shot

anthrax series told UPI Tuesday he developed bronchitis and a severe cough

after receiving his shots, and that about a fifth of the troops he was

deployed with had similar symptoms and were prescribed medicine to treat

them. His symptoms continued after he returned to the U.S., and he sought

further treatment at a base clinic. He got better, but believes he nearly

came down with pneumonia.

 

The Pentagon dispatched two teams to look into the pneumonia: one to Iraq

and another to a U.S. military base in Landstuhl, Germany, where some sick

soldiers are treated.

 

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SMALLPOX VACCINATION 101:

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NATIONAL VACCINE INFORMATION CENTER (NVIC):

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CDC SMALLPOX INFORMATION:

http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/index.asp

 

DR. CLASSEN'S VACCINE SITE:

http://www.vaccines.net/

 

IMMUNIZATIONS:

http://www.pcslink.com/~klove/immunize.htm

 

VACCINE INFORMATION AND AWARENESS (VIA) WEB SITE:

http://www.access1.net/via/

 

CONCERNED PARENTS FOR VACCINE SAFETY:

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ANTHRAX VACCINE INFORMATION:

http://www.anthraxvaccine.org

 

VACCINATION NEWS:

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VACCINEWEBSITE.COM:

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DR. TIM O'SHEA'S THEDOCTORWITHIN.COM:

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