Anthrax Vaccines - British Anthrax Vaccines

British Anthrax Vaccines

The widely used British anthrax vaccine — sometimes called Anthrax Vaccine Precipitated (AVP) to distinguish it from the similar AVA (see below) — became available for human use in 1954. This was a cell-free vaccine in distinction to the live-cell Pasteur-style vaccine previously used for veterinary purposes. It is now manufactured by the Health Protection Agency.

AVP is administered at primovaccination in 3 doses with a booster dose after 6 months. The active ingredient is a sterile filtrate of an alum-precipitated anthrax antigen from the Sterne strain in a solution for injection. The other ingredients are aluminium potassium sulphate, sodium chloride and purified water. The preservative is thiomersal (0.005%). The vaccine is given by intramuscular injection and the primary course of four single injections (3 injections 3 weeks apart, followed by a 6 month dose) is followed by a single booster dose given once a year. During the Gulf War (1990–1991), UK military personnel were given AVP concomitantly with the pertussis vaccine as an adjuvant to improve overall immune response and efficacy.