Anthrax vaccinations start this week for service members deploying to Southwest Asia and Korea, and shots for those already in Korea will begin in early September, DoD officials announced Aug. 14. DoD's announcement marks the beginning of a three-phase vaccination program for all 2.4 million active duty and reserve component service members. About 48,000 service members already in Southwest Asia have been receiving shots through an accelerated immunization program. Cowan is deputy director for medical readiness at the Joint Staff. Anthrax is a livestock disease the Iraqis are known to have refined into a biological agent.
Exposure is nearly always fatal to the unprotected.
Defense Secretary William S. Cohen ordered a total-force anthrax vaccination program in December 1997. In March, he ordered U.S. personnel in Southwest Asia to receive shots following a U.N. confrontation with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein over weapons inspections, the ejection of U.S. inspectors and threats to U.S. and allied personnel in the area. Phase 1 of the vaccination program calls for an estimated 200,000 service members going to high-threat areas, such as Southwest Asia and Korea, to receive vaccinations over the next two fiscal years. Phase 2, starting in fiscal 2000, is for personnel in early deploying units to high-threat areas, officials said. About 300,000 personnel per year will receive the vaccine through fiscal 2003.