LYCOS RETRIEVER 
Anthrax: Anthrax Vaccine
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Anthrax in nature is a usually fatal zoonotic disease that was a scourge of livestock until vaccines were developed in the 1880s. Animals acquire the disease from consuming contaminated soil in which pre-existing anthrax spores are likely to have germinated, then resporulated under appropriate soil and weather conditions, increasing their concentration in soil to infectious levels. [60] [91] Human disease results from exposure to contaminated animal products. Cutaneous disease is most common. The mortality is neglible if treated, and has been 15% due to septic complications when untreated. Gastrointestinal and meningeal cases are rarely seen.
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Anthrax is highly fatal and it is difficult to treat affected animals. Long acting penicillin is the antibiotic of choice. Response to treatment may vary; best results are obtained when drugs are administered early during an outbreak. If antibiotics are used, vaccination with an anthrax vaccine should be delayed for one to two weeks. The vaccine is a modified-live bacterin and antibiotics will kill or neutralize the vaccine.
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The vaccine used to protect humans against the anthrax disease, called Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed (AVA), was licensed in 1970. It was initially used primarily to protect people who might be exposed to anthrax where they worked, such as veterinarians and textile plant workers who process animal hair.
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Anthrax is not spread from person to person. Those who come into contact with persons sick with anthrax cannot acquire the disease. Anthrax vaccine requires 6 shots over an 18 month period with periodic boosters, and this vaccine is not commercially available.
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The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has issued recommendations concerning the use of aluminum hydroxide adsorbed cell-free anthrax vaccine (Anthrax Vaccine Adsorbed) in the United States.25 This vaccine was studied in a rabbit model. At 6 and 10 weeks, the quantitative anti-protective antigen immunoglobulin G ELISA and the toxin-neutralizing antibody assays were used to measure antibody levels to protective antigen. Rabbits were challenged at 10 weeks with a lethal dose of anthrax spores by inhalation. All the rabbits that received the undiluted and 1:4 dilution of vaccine survived. Antibody levels to protective antigen at both 6 and 10 weeks were significant predictors of survival.26 Passive transfer of lymphocytes and sera from mice immunized using two different formulations of PA has been used to study the mechanism of protection against Bacillus anthracis infection. These results ... showed that an antibody response may be important in protection against anthrax.27
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There is a licensed human Anthrax vaccine that consists of a series of six doses with yearly boosters. The first vaccine of the series must be given at least four weeks before exposure to the disease. This vaccine protects against Anthrax that is acquired through the skin in an occupational environment. It is believed that it would ... be effective against inhaled spores in a BW situation.
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Anthrax Vaccine