Researchers Combine Smallpox, Anthrax Vaccines

Researchers have combined vaccines against smallpox and anthrax into one vaccine that could protect against both germs in a biological attack.

The U.S. government team said on Monday they had improved both vaccines, as well, to make them safer, faster-acting and more effective.

“Although licensed vaccines are available for both smallpox and anthrax, because of inadequacies associated with each of these vaccines, serious concerns remain as to the deployability of these vaccines, especially in the aftermath of a bioterror attack involving these pathogens,” Liyanage Perera of the U.S. National Cancer Institute and colleagues wrote.

The new dual vaccine can be freeze-dried, stockpiled and rapidly delivered when needed, they wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences…

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