BioTerror Research

BioTerror Research

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/health/2011/10/27/how-to-test-the-anthrax-vaccine-in-children/

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/334/6056/577.summary

Should children be enrolled in a clinical trial of the anthrax vaccine? The National Biodefense Science Board voted 12-1 in favor of a trial assuming the ethics of the experiment will be approved. The Board approved the trial saying it was too uneasy to risk a mass science experiment on thousands of children after a bioterror attack, so a clinical trial should be done prior.

The Board feels the trial is warranted because a safe and effective vaccine is currently available to the military, but has never been tested on children. In case of an attack, parents would have a vaccine available but the children would not. And the board has been told by intelligence agencies that an anthrax threat is “credible.”

The vaccine for children is very controversial. Civilian health officials do not want to rely on the intelligence community to make recommendations. Dr. Anthony Robbins, the former director of the US National Vaccine Program and professor of Public Health at Tufts University School of Medicine, wrote a recent article titled “How to Test the Anthrax Vaccine in Children.” He stated the ideal group of volunteer children would come from the parents with national security clearance that can evaluate the evidence of a “credible threat.” Let those parents decide if their children would need the anthrax vaccine. Those children should be the volunteers of the clinical trial.