Does the anthrax vaccine work?
More than 95 percent of people given three doses of the anthrax vaccine will develop high levels of antibodies against anthrax in their blood. Unfortunately, there are not a lot of studies on the effectiveness of the anthrax vaccine, but one study, published in 1962, was interesting. In this study, mill workers at high risk of getting anthrax were given either vaccine or no vaccine. The effectiveness of the vaccine was about 92 percent. What was of interest in this study was that, during the study, an outbreak of “inhalational” anthrax occurred. “Inhalational” anthrax occurs when large numbers of anthrax spores are released in the air and is exactly analogous to what would happen if anthrax were used as a biological weapon. Five people got anthrax disease after breathing in the anthrax spores — all five people had not received the vaccine. Therefore, the anthrax vaccine appears to be effective in preventing “inhalational” anthrax (the type of anthrax expected in a bioterrorist attack).
