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Biodefence since 9/11: The price of protection

Nature volume 477, pages 150–152 (2011)Cite this article

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Since the anthrax attacks in 2001, some $60 billion has been spent on biodefence in the United States. But the money has not bought quite what was hoped.

It took one routine smallpox vaccination to expose the holes in the United States' defences against bioterrorism. In January 2009, the jab was given to 20-year-old Lance Corporal Cory Belken of the US Marine Corps, as it is to many members of the military who are about to be deployed abroad, to protect him against a potential attack with the lethal virus. But in this case, the timing was unfortunate. Two weeks after the vaccination Belken was diagnosed with leukaemia; he then underwent chemotherapy that wiped out his immune system. Suddenly, the live vaccinia virus, the milder relative of smallpox used in the vaccination, was able to multiply into a dangerous infection.

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  1. Erika Check Hayden
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See Comment page 153

Erika Check Hayden is a senior reporter for Nature in San Francisco, California.

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NIAID biodefence resources

BARDA

Biodefence funding, 2001–12

WMD Center's 2010 report

HHS Public Health Emergency Medical Countermeasures Review

National Biodefense Science Board “Where are the Countermeasures” report

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Check Hayden, E. Biodefence since 9/11: The price of protection. Nature 477, 150–152 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/477150a

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