Years after the major anthrax scare that followed 9/11, when the disease became a center for bioterrorism and millions were wary of opening their mail as panic attacked, there's a new anthrax vaccine available after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it - but unfortunately, it cannot be applied to everyone.
The FDA recently repurposed the use of a 1970 anthrax vaccine, after discovering it worked best when the patient had been previously exposed to the Bacillus anthracis bacteria, the one that causes this often deadly disease - though, due to biohazard, no human beings were used in the further studies regarding the illness.
According to Medscape, the anthrax vaccine adsorbed was originally approved back in 1970 to protect those who were at a high risk of exposure (and it was prescribed alongside antibiotics), but as fears grow over the potential use for biological warfare of this bacteria, the FDA has repurposed the old vaccine to be used particularly by those who have been contaminated or are suspected of it.
WSFA reports that the expanded approval for this anthrax vaccine was granted through the "animal rule," which is to say tested on animals, as it is considered unethical (and downright unfeasible) to test a vaccine of this potentially deadly virus on human subjects.
After the anthrax vaccine, BioThrax, was found to provide a "reasonable level of protection" to exposed rabbits, giving them a survival rate of 70 to 100 percent, it was decided to give the vaccine further specifications.
In the wake of this announcement, Wired reports on the difficulty of testing vaccines for diseases of this nature, as it's completely wrong to test them on human subjects because it would likely lead to their deaths; due to this, the "animal rule" was invented, pursued when a disease is too rare and deadly to test on humans.
In any case, this anthrax vaccine could be a breath of fresh air to those who, most likely due to lab contact, have been exposed to this illness.
