Anthrax vaccine 'safe and effective'

February 14 2003
By Meaghan Shaw, Andrew Heasley, Wayne Miller

Australia's chief medical officer Richard Smallwood said yesterday that the anthrax vaccine, which is being given to Australian troops heading to the Gulf, was generally regarded as safe and effective.

Professor Smallwood said the Institute of Medicine in the United States and the Centres for Disease Control had been monitoring the long-term effects of the vaccination and so far believed there was no lasting effect.

He told a Senate Estimates Committee various studies showed only about 10 per cent of people inoculated would get a local reaction to the vaccine. Those who got a more general reaction, where they may have a fever and aches for up to three days, would be 2 per cent at most, he said.

Eleven Australian sailors are on their way home from the Middle East after refusing to be vaccinated against anthrax for fear of its effects.

Australian Medical Association president Kerryn Phelps said Australian troops should have been allowed to seek independent medical advice about the effects before sailing. She remained unconvinced by US assurances that the vaccine was safe. "Let's see their evidence," she said. "I'd be asking some of my colleagues in infectious diseases about the risk of the vaccine (before I'd take it)."
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