Vaccines in civilian defense against bioterrorism.

Abstract

In the United States, over the past half century, we have lived under the protective umbrella of vaccination programs that shield our population from a dozen serious and sometimes fatal naturally transmitted illnesses. Vaccination has been the single most cost-effective public health intervention. However, the value of vaccines in protecting the population against the deliberate release of infectious organisms is not so clear-cut. The U.S. armed forces have recognized the military value of vaccines against biological threats and have a long-standing research and development program for a series of vaccines to protect service members from hostile use of a biological agent. Vaccination against anthrax is under way in all three armed services. The Department of Defense has a large program to develop and license additional vaccines for biological defense. For the military, vaccination is an effective means of countering a known threat because the population at risk is easily defined and a high level of vaccine coverage can be achieved. In evaluating the role of vaccines for protecting the civilian population, quite different answers are reached. Despite the protective efficacy of vaccines against individual organisms, the very high costs and the great difficulties involved in vaccinating large populations, along with the broad spectrum of potential agents, make it impossible to use vaccines to protect the general population against bioterrorism. Thus, vaccines cannot be considered a first line of defense against bioterrorism for the general population, as they can be for the relatively small military population. However, if suitable vaccines can be made available, they have several potential uses: control of a smallpox epidemic and prevention of a global pandemic, postexposure prophylaxis against anthrax (with antibiotics), and preexposure prophylaxis in first-responders at high risk, laboratory workers, and health-care providers. Smallpox and anthrax, which pose the greatest risk for causing large numbers of casualties in the event of an effective release by a terrorist group, are at the top of the list of threat agents. Licensed vaccines against both anthrax and smallpox that protect against aerosol transmission are available. An existing licensed plague vaccine is protective against fleatransmitted disease but not against aerosol challenge in animal experiments or against pneumonic plague. This vaccine is in limited supply, and the manufacturer has recently ceased production. The Department of Defense Joint Vaccine Acquisition Program has several experimental vaccines in development (Table). These vaccines will be further developed and tested with the intent of obtaining products licensed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.