Perhaps changing the conditions our military are forced to deal with in boot camp would be a more judicious approach than potentially undermining their immune systems with vaccines. –SM

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July 13, 2001

“A Common Virus, a Military Recruit—and a Mysterious Death”

Wall Street Journal (www.wsj.com) (07/13/01) P. 1; Lueck, Sarah

The adenovirus is causing severe problems for the U.S. military.  A lot of people tend to encounter the adenovirus—a common germ that can cause a wide variety of respiratory illnesses from pneumonia to the common cold—without every getting sick.  The virus tends to pose a serious problem for the military’s nine basic-training camps, where the combination of close contact, cramped living quarters, and the stress of boot camp means that many of the 190,000 recruits that pass through the installations are far more vulnerable to catching these illnesses than they would otherwise be.  For almost 20 years, the military had provided recruits with a vaccine against the virus, but it stopped doing so in 1999.  According to Margaret Ryan, a Navy health researcher, while the military was using the vaccine, a busy basic-training camp might see 200 cases of respiratory illness a week, of which approximately 10 percent were caused by adenovirus.  Without the vaccine, however, such a camp could witness as many as 800 cases of respiratory illness per week, of which over 90 percent were caused by adenovirus.  The military has known since the 1950s that adenovirus could result in many recruits becoming ill during basic training, yet for the last 10 years, the Pentagon refused to take any steps to ensure that the military continued to receive the vaccine at a relatively low cost.  In particular, the military refused to help Wyeth Laboratories, which has manufactured the vaccine since the early 1980s, keep the vaccine in production.  The Pentagon is now moving to address the issue, but a vaccine is not expected to become available for at least three to five years.

ALL INFORMATION, DATA, AND MATERIAL CONTAINED, PRESENTED, OR PROVIDED HERE IS FOR GENERAL INFORMATION PURPOSES ONLY AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED AS REFLECTING THE KNOWLEDGE OR OPINIONS OF THE PUBLISHER, AND IS NOT TO BE CONSTRUED OR INTENDED AS PROVIDING MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE.  THE DECISION WHETHER OR NOT TO VACCINATE IS AN IMPORTANT AND COMPLEX ISSUE AND SHOULD BE MADE BY YOU, AND YOU ALONE, IN CONSULTATION WITH YOUR HEALTH CARE PROVIDER.