Air Force Times             
http://www.airforcetimes.com
June 25, 2001

Reservist wants restitution for sudden hair loss

By David Castellon
Times staff writer

Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Clarence L. McNamer in January was granted a waiver from taking further anthrax vaccinations.Now he wants to be reimbursed for more than $11,000 he spent to convince Air Force officials that the sudden, total loss of all the hair above his neck last summer likely was an allergic reaction to his fifth anthrax vaccination, not the onset of  middle-age hair loss. In addition, McNamer wants 130 hours of sick leave and  annual leave he took to undergo the exams and consultations given back to him.

McNamer says he has been waiting since April 11 for hospital administrators at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., to let him know if the military will cover his bills. Officials at Travis’ 349^th Aircraft Generation Squadron, where the 49-year-old McNamer serves as a C-5 Galaxy crew chief, declined to comment. Leigh Anne Bierstine, a spokeswoman for the Air Force Surgeon General’s Office, said her office “cannot comment on specifics of
individual medical cases.” She did say that, outside of medical emergencies,  “all Air Force members must receive preauthorization from their primary care physicians before seeking civilian medical care.” Such authorizations usually are granted for medical problems acquired in the line of duty, she said. But the 349^th commander didn’t rule that McNamer’s medical problems may have resulted from the vaccination until Feb. 13.

That’s about seven months after he began seeing private doctors and specialists. Those visits began shortly after McNamer’s wife discovered that several quarter-sized patches of his thick, brown hair had fallen out and that sores were growing on the bare skin. In addition, he was experiencing persistent flu-like symptoms McNamer suspected either the vaccination or his constant exposure to JP-8 jet fuel was to blame. He said he mentioned both to the flight surgeon at Travis he saw in early June of last year, as well as subsequent military doctors who examined him. One doctor later described his symptoms as “male pattern baldness.” By August, McNamer lost all the hair on his scalp, along with his eyelashes, beard growth and even his nose hairs. In addition, the pus-filled sores had spread across his scalp, and he suffered from muscle pain, vision problems and memory loss. But the military doctors weren’t discussing the shots as a possible cause. “It’s like they wanted it to be anything but the anthrax shot,” McNamer said, adding that one of his private doctors filed a Vaccine Adverse Event Reaction System report with the Food and Drug Administration although three military doctors didn’t.

The male pattern baldness diagnosis prevented his private health-care provider from covering “baldness treatments,” so he had to dig into his own wallet to pay for the
exams. Dr. Mohammed A. Al-Bayati, a comparative pathologist specializing in
work-related illnesses, later ruled out age, JP-8 exposure or an autoimmune problem as causes of the hair loss. His ruling was based on medical tests by both military and civilian doctors, including a biopsy of McNamer’s skin. The likely culprit was an allergic reaction, Al-Bayati concluded. And despite the severity of the hair loss and how bad McNamer felt for months, his was not an extreme reaction, Al-Bayati said. Out of the 1,530 military members who reported minor to serious ailments after getting anthrax shots (from more than 505,000 who’ve received them so far), nine said they had some sort of hair loss, said James Turner, a Defense Department spokesman. He did not
provide details of those cases.

Al-Bayati said he believes the vaccine may have activated production of new cells in McNamer’s body, causing a zinc deficiency that could have caused the hair loss. While his findings aren’t conclusive, he said the capper for him was that after McNamer began taking zinc, his hair began growing back in September.

Capt. (Dr.) Steven J. Gustaveson, a Reserve flight surgeon with the 349^th, granted McNamer a waiver from having to take his follow-up anthrax vaccinations shortly after Al-Bayati completed his evaluation in January of this year. But that doesn’t necessarily mean he agrees with all of Al-Bayati’s conclusions.“ Whether you can attribute it to one vaccination, you can’t say,” he said, because McNamer had received his fourth and fifth anthrax shots as well as a typhoid vaccination within four months of each other.“ I don’t know why they were so close together,” but Gustaveson said it’s more likely McNamer’s ailments resulted from the combination of shots.

Whatever the cause, McNamer worries that he may suffer long-term health problem even though he’s got a full head of hair, is feeling better and began flying again in May after being medically grounded for a year. Still, McNamer said, “I’m not against the anthrax shots. I’ve been in the military a long time, and I’ve taken a lot of shots. I believe the military has a lot invested in me and wouldn’t do anything to harm me or do me ill health. At least that’s my hope.” All he wants right now is for the military to reimburse him.

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.