Israel develops its own anthrax vaccine

New Delhi: Israel has developed and tested an anthrax vaccine on its own soldiers, says a former chief medical officer for the Israeli military.

Giora Martinovitch says as many as 700 soldiers, all of them volunteers, were tested over an eight-year period beginning in 1998.

The vaccine programme was ordered amid fears of an anthrax attack by the late Iraqi president Saddam Hussein and because foreign-made vaccines were not available.

Anthrax is a potentially fatal bacterial disease that can be used in biological warfare.

The US requires all its soldiers to be vaccinated for anthrax.