Airman: Vaccine caused illness
By Kevin Maurer
Fayetteville Observer
Tech. Sgt. Lavester Brown almost died last year when his heart swelled to twice normal size hours after he received an anthrax vaccination. A few months later, he had to have a heart transplant.
Brown said he believes the shot caused his heart problem and that adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccination are more common in blacks.
The Air Force said it has not found evidence to support Brown's claim.
Brown was a C-130 crew chief with 14 years in the Air Force. He said he was in great shape - he played basketball three times a week - and never smoked, drank or used drugs. He does suffer from glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, a genetic condition that is present in an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of black men in the United States. The condition can cause red blood cells to break down when exposed to bacterial infections or certain drugs.
No effect
The Air Force said the genetic deficiency had no effect.
"The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the ACIP (the military's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) have not found a need to restrict any vaccination in people who are G6PD deficient," Col. Eden Murrie, chief of the programs and legislation division of the Office of Legislative Liaison, wrote after Brown sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a North Carolina Republican.
But according to Brown, a note in his medical records asked personnel to "use caution" when administering vaccinations.
In 2003, he was ordered to get smallpox and anthrax vaccinations while deployed to Qatar. The anthrax immunization consists of three injections given two weeks apart followed by three additional injections given at intervals of six, 12 and 18 months.
On Feb. 27, 2004, his fourth anthrax shot was due. Within hours of the fourth shot, he was in the emergency room at Womack Army Medical Center. At first, he said, he was given some medicine and sent home. But he got worse and went back. By the time of the second visit, he could barely breathe and his pulse was racing. He said his wife insisted that doctors take a chest X-ray. It revealed that his heart was twice its normal size and was failing.
"I've never been ill like that before," Brown said. "They couldn't believe that I walked into the facility."
Brown was sent to the medical center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received a new heart Oct. 27.
On the same day that Brown got his heart, Judge Emmett Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declared the involuntary anthrax vaccination program illegal without informed consent from service members.
The Department of Defense asked the Department of Health and Human Services last month for emergency authority to resume the anthrax vaccination program for military personnel. No decision has been made, Pentagon officials said.
The Air Force continues to contend that the vaccinations are an essential safeguard for service members.
"The DOD continues its anthrax and smallpox vaccination programs because anthrax and smallpox virus do not require sophisticated weapons delivery systems," Murrie wrote. "Our biodefense vaccination programs are designed to keep service members healthy and give them their best chance to return home to their loved ones safely."
Medical retirement
Brown, meanwhile, has had to medically retire from the military.
In the letter he sent to Dole's office in October, Brown asked for an investigation of the safety of the military vaccination program. He said in the letter that he believes the Pentagon is failing "to acknowledge a genetically linked risk of serious reactions to one or both vaccines for African-American service members."
"I love the Air Force, but I want to know why, if a soldier tells you medically, 'I can't take that,' why is that person not given a choice if it puts their life in danger," Brown said in an interview at his home before Christmas.
The Air Force response by Murrie came Dec. 6. A working group said in October that the information gathered was "insufficient to move away from neutrality to favor or reject a causal association" between the vaccinations and the kind of heart problem Brown experienced. Such conditions "occur at the same rate among anthrax-vaccinated and unvaccinated personnel without differences by ethnicity," Murrie wrote.
The military is continuing to study the issue. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board working group have said that more evaluation is needed.
A spokeswoman in Dole's office said the senator is pleased that Brown's concerns are getting attention.
"We'll wait to see what those investigations yield," said Katie Norman, Dole's deputy press secretary.
Fayetteville Observer
Tech. Sgt. Lavester Brown almost died last year when his heart swelled to twice normal size hours after he received an anthrax vaccination. A few months later, he had to have a heart transplant.
Brown said he believes the shot caused his heart problem and that adverse reactions to the anthrax vaccination are more common in blacks.
The Air Force said it has not found evidence to support Brown's claim.
Brown was a C-130 crew chief with 14 years in the Air Force. He said he was in great shape - he played basketball three times a week - and never smoked, drank or used drugs. He does suffer from glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (G6PD) deficiency, a genetic condition that is present in an estimated 10 percent to 15 percent of black men in the United States. The condition can cause red blood cells to break down when exposed to bacterial infections or certain drugs.
No effect
The Air Force said the genetic deficiency had no effect.
"The FDA (Food and Drug Administration) and the ACIP (the military's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices) have not found a need to restrict any vaccination in people who are G6PD deficient," Col. Eden Murrie, chief of the programs and legislation division of the Office of Legislative Liaison, wrote after Brown sent a letter to U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Dole, a North Carolina Republican.
But according to Brown, a note in his medical records asked personnel to "use caution" when administering vaccinations.
In 2003, he was ordered to get smallpox and anthrax vaccinations while deployed to Qatar. The anthrax immunization consists of three injections given two weeks apart followed by three additional injections given at intervals of six, 12 and 18 months.
On Feb. 27, 2004, his fourth anthrax shot was due. Within hours of the fourth shot, he was in the emergency room at Womack Army Medical Center. At first, he said, he was given some medicine and sent home. But he got worse and went back. By the time of the second visit, he could barely breathe and his pulse was racing. He said his wife insisted that doctors take a chest X-ray. It revealed that his heart was twice its normal size and was failing.
"I've never been ill like that before," Brown said. "They couldn't believe that I walked into the facility."
Brown was sent to the medical center at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He received a new heart Oct. 27.
On the same day that Brown got his heart, Judge Emmett Sullivan of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia declared the involuntary anthrax vaccination program illegal without informed consent from service members.
The Department of Defense asked the Department of Health and Human Services last month for emergency authority to resume the anthrax vaccination program for military personnel. No decision has been made, Pentagon officials said.
The Air Force continues to contend that the vaccinations are an essential safeguard for service members.
"The DOD continues its anthrax and smallpox vaccination programs because anthrax and smallpox virus do not require sophisticated weapons delivery systems," Murrie wrote. "Our biodefense vaccination programs are designed to keep service members healthy and give them their best chance to return home to their loved ones safely."
Medical retirement
Brown, meanwhile, has had to medically retire from the military.
In the letter he sent to Dole's office in October, Brown asked for an investigation of the safety of the military vaccination program. He said in the letter that he believes the Pentagon is failing "to acknowledge a genetically linked risk of serious reactions to one or both vaccines for African-American service members."
"I love the Air Force, but I want to know why, if a soldier tells you medically, 'I can't take that,' why is that person not given a choice if it puts their life in danger," Brown said in an interview at his home before Christmas.
The Air Force response by Murrie came Dec. 6. A working group said in October that the information gathered was "insufficient to move away from neutrality to favor or reject a causal association" between the vaccinations and the kind of heart problem Brown experienced. Such conditions "occur at the same rate among anthrax-vaccinated and unvaccinated personnel without differences by ethnicity," Murrie wrote.
The military is continuing to study the issue. The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices and the Armed Forces Epidemiological Board working group have said that more evaluation is needed.
A spokeswoman in Dole's office said the senator is pleased that Brown's concerns are getting attention.
"We'll wait to see what those investigations yield," said Katie Norman, Dole's deputy press secretary.
