Ambulatory medical visits among anthrax-vaccinated and unvaccinated personnel after return from southwest Asia.

The Department of Defense launched a mandatory anthrax immunization program for military personnel in December 1997. This program has been criticized for many reasons, including concern over side effects. This study was designed to give a quick answer to the question of whether vaccinated persons who deployed to southwest Asia were more likely to seek medical care upon their return than their unvaccinated counterparts. The results demonstrated that there was no greater risk for vaccinated persons to have a diagnosis recorded in the Ambulatory Data System (0.96 RR) than unvaccinated persons. In addition, there was no significant increased risk for a recorded diagnosis in any 1 of the 17 International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, categories or for 16 specific adverse health conditions.