Epidemic Strikes Training Centers
The military has run out of the vaccine that prevents
adenovirus-related illnesses

By Stephen Trimble
www.Military.com Staff Writer

WASHINGTON (Aug. 3, 2000) -- An epidemic of minor
respiratory illnesses is gripping boot camps across the
country -- and there's no vaccine left, military medical
researchers say.

Scientists at the Naval Health Research Center blame

both the tiny adenovirus and poor planning by military
health officials. The Pentagon stopped buying the vaccine
several years ago, and the manufacturer has ceased
production. The final doses were administered last year.

Now, adenovirus-related illnesses are striking service
members at training centers, including a spring outbreak
that sickened 130 recruits at Fort Benning, Ga. Most victims
endure cold or flu-like symptoms for three or four days. The
infections are rarely deadly, but some soldiers have
recorded fevers of 107 degrees.

In July, a team of Navy researchers led by Capt. Greg
Gray presented a report on the situation to officials at the
Institute of Medicine. The results may have been news to the
federal advisory body, but not to many military doctors.

"Those of us in the preventive medicine community saw
this coming for a long time," said Army Maj. Brian Alsip, a
doctor at Fort Benning.

Gray, a medical scientist, is studying the outbreak at
the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego. He and others
warned about the disease as far back as 1995, when Pentagon
officials decided not to continue buying the vaccine from
its former supplier, Wyeth-Ayerst Laboratories.

After inoculating troops steadily since the mid-1970s,
the military used up its remaining adenovirus vaccine stocks
last year. Because no production lines are open, no more can
be obtained for at least three years, said Gray, who in
September will publish his findings in a medical journal.

Pentagon spokesman James Turner had no comment at press
time on Aug. 3. Wyeth-Ayerst public affairs officials did
not return phone calls.

Breeding ground

Adenovirus infections now account for 90 percent of all
viral infections treated by military hospitals, Gray said.
The outbreaks have reached epidemic levels -- defined as 1.5
cases per 100 people per week -- at several military
installations.

Densely-packed boot camps are the most common targets,
he said. His team of researchers is monitoring epidemics at
Fort Benning; Fort Jackson, S.C.; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.;
Lackland Air Force Base, Texas; Naval Training Center Great
Lakes, Ill. and Coast Guard's training station at Cape May,
N.J. Cases have been also reported at the Marine Corps'
Parris Island, N.C., and the Army's Fort Sill, Okla.

Cramped conditions make it especially easy for the virus
to spread in boot camp barracks. It was no shock to Alsip
when scores of Fort Benning recruits suddenly fell ill last
spring. The rapid outbreak, which afflicted 130 soldiers in
a single battalion in a week, forced the post's beleaguered
hospital staff to convert a barracks into a makeshift
infirmary.

Good hygiene can help prevent the spread, as do clean
rooms and fresh air. "The disease itself is fairly benign,"
Alsip said, "but in the context of a training unit, it can
really be disruptive."

Boot camp doctors must sweat out the intervening period,
knowing the next outbreak could strike their troops and
disrupt training schedules.

"You can make sure there is a constant vigilance, but
there's a limit to what you can do without a primary
treatment, which is the vaccine," Alsip said.

Another troubled vaccine program

The adenovirus outbreaks come as military brass struggle
with another troubled vaccine program: anthrax. In July,
defense secretary William Cohen announced a slowdown anthrax
shots after a private supplier failed a second inspection by
the Food and Drug Administration.

Several senators soon asked Pentagon officials why they
relied on private, profit-seeking vaccine suppliers instead
of producing their own vaccine. The officials replied that
creating an internal production line could take at least six
years.

Gray expects the adenovirus to threaten military boot
camps for several years. So what -- besides maintaining
general hygiene -- can recruits do to avoid getting sick?

"That's the $64,000 question," Alsip said. "There isn't
a lot to prevent this that is as good as the vaccine."

You can reach Stephen Trimble at stephent@m....

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