Australian Troops Ill From Anthrax Shots

[Guest guest]

Australia Troops Ill From Anthrax Shots

 

By Associated PressFebruary 21, 2004, 10:04 AM EST

 

CANBERRA, Australia -- Australia injected soldiers headed to Iraq with an anthrax vaccine without telling them that forces who received the vaccine before going to Afghanistan had fallen ill, officials said Saturday.

 

Tony Austin, the defense health services director-general, defended the military's decision to keep quiet about the possible side effects of the vaccine, saying he had no definitive evidence the two were linked.

 

Austin said the forces already were being deployed to a stressful environment in Iraq and he had no proof that the problems were likely to recur.

 

"So I think to have advised people of that would have been quite counterproductive. I think that would have increased anxiety levels amongst our people," he said.

 

Defense documents released Saturday showed that almost three in four Australian troops who were given the vaccine before going to Afghanistan suffered from swelling and pain in the injected arm and a flu-like illness that kept some on sick leave for up to 48 hours.

 

In late 2001, Australia sent about 1,500 military personnel to Afghanistan to join the U.S.-led military action against the Taliban militia and al-Qaida.

 

The Weekend Australian newspaper reported Saturday that so many Afghanistan-bound personnel suffered temporary reactions to the vaccine that the anthrax vaccination program was suspended for two months in November 2001.

 

Vaccinations were resumed without telling troops heading to Iraq a year later of the side effects. Around 2,000 Australian troops were deployed to Iraq.

 

Austin said while he could not guarantee that the British-made vaccine was 100 percent safe, he could reassure inoculated troops and their families that their health had not been jeopardized.

 

"To this day, I have no evidence to suggest that the complications we saw in Afghanistan were directly attributable to the vaccine," he said.

 

Austin added unusual rates of adverse reactions had not been found in subsequent vaccinations.

 

In 2003, 52 Australian defense personnel were banned from serving in Iraq after they refused to take the anthrax vaccine.

 

http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-australia-anthrax,0,4545521.story

============================================== IF YOU'RE NOT PARANOID, THEN YOU'RE NOT PAYING ATTENTION!==============================================