Authorities Offer Their Anthrax Vaccine to U.S.
Russian health authorities offered to help the United States combat anthrax by sharing a vaccine developed to fend off biological weapons during the Cold War.
“We are ready to supply the United States with vaccines against anthrax if the necessity arises,” said Lyubov Voropayeva, a Health Ministry spokeswoman.
The only vaccine in the United States is in limited supply and currently available only to the military.
Russia’s vaccine is completely
different from the U.S. one, said Veniamin Cherkassky, a leading anthrax expert in Moscow. The U.S. vaccine is chemically based and has to be repeated frequently; the Russian vaccine contains live anthrax strains and lasts for a year, he said.
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