thedrifter
11-20-03, 09:01 AM
November 19, 2003
Vaccinations may have killed reservist
By Deborah Funk
Times staff writer
One or more vaccines may have triggered the illness that led to the death of a 22-year-old soldier this year, Pentagon officials said.
Two separate panels of civilian medical experts investigated four cases of severe illness, including three deaths, among service members. They concluded there was a likely — but not definitive — link between vaccines and the onset of an underlying and undiagnosed auto-immune disorder that led to lung damage in Army Spc. Rachel Lacy and killed her in roughly a month.
The panels are under the auspices of the Defense Department’s Armed Forces Epidemiological Board and the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The panels determined that the evidence favored a causal relationship between vaccination and illness, leading to this soldier’s death, but that the evidence is not conclusive,” said Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
Neither group could identify a specific vaccine as a possible cause, he said.
None of the other cases examined were linked to vaccines, defense officials said.
Lacy, an Army Reserve combat medic and nursing student, received multiple shots on March 2 to prepare to deploy to the Persian Gulf. They included anthrax, smallpox, hepatitis B, typhoid VI and measles, mumps and rubella. She died April 4.
More than 900,000 troops have been given anthrax vaccine and 515,000 have received smallpox vaccine, Winkenwerder said.
Defense officials now will analyze their databases and conduct other reviews to try to determine how many vaccines are safe to give at the same time.
The Institute of Medicine has concluded it is safe to give multiple vaccinations to infants, who have a less mature immune system than adults. But military officials admit there is limited hard science regarding the safety of multiple vaccinations.
Lacy’s case is what prompted defense officials to ask experts to look at a possible connection between vaccinations and serious illness. Hers was the only case where investigators drew a link.
The other three cases that were investigated involved a service member who died of pulmonary embolism, a member who died a week after vaccination after overdosing on benzodiazepine, a category of drugs that includes valium, and another who had atrial fibrillation but survived.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-292925-2411742.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine:
Vaccinations may have killed reservist
By Deborah Funk
Times staff writer
One or more vaccines may have triggered the illness that led to the death of a 22-year-old soldier this year, Pentagon officials said.
Two separate panels of civilian medical experts investigated four cases of severe illness, including three deaths, among service members. They concluded there was a likely — but not definitive — link between vaccines and the onset of an underlying and undiagnosed auto-immune disorder that led to lung damage in Army Spc. Rachel Lacy and killed her in roughly a month.
The panels are under the auspices of the Defense Department’s Armed Forces Epidemiological Board and the Health Resources and Services Administration, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.
“The panels determined that the evidence favored a causal relationship between vaccination and illness, leading to this soldier’s death, but that the evidence is not conclusive,” said Dr. William Winkenwerder Jr., assistant secretary of defense for health affairs.
Neither group could identify a specific vaccine as a possible cause, he said.
None of the other cases examined were linked to vaccines, defense officials said.
Lacy, an Army Reserve combat medic and nursing student, received multiple shots on March 2 to prepare to deploy to the Persian Gulf. They included anthrax, smallpox, hepatitis B, typhoid VI and measles, mumps and rubella. She died April 4.
More than 900,000 troops have been given anthrax vaccine and 515,000 have received smallpox vaccine, Winkenwerder said.
Defense officials now will analyze their databases and conduct other reviews to try to determine how many vaccines are safe to give at the same time.
The Institute of Medicine has concluded it is safe to give multiple vaccinations to infants, who have a less mature immune system than adults. But military officials admit there is limited hard science regarding the safety of multiple vaccinations.
Lacy’s case is what prompted defense officials to ask experts to look at a possible connection between vaccinations and serious illness. Hers was the only case where investigators drew a link.
The other three cases that were investigated involved a service member who died of pulmonary embolism, a member who died a week after vaccination after overdosing on benzodiazepine, a category of drugs that includes valium, and another who had atrial fibrillation but survived.
http://www.marinecorpstimes.com/story.php?f=0-292925-2411742.php
Sempers,
Roger
:marine: