"The US federal government has a goal to stockpile 75 million doses of anthrax vaccines. The new facility and its capacity will help Emergent meet the governments security needs.Emergent worked with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA) within the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response in the United States Department of Health and Human Services on the project. The facilitys value is estimated at $104 million, according to Yahoo Finance. Administration
Vaccination schedule
Vaccination with Emergent BioSolutions BioThrax AVA and BioThrax IM intramuscular injections in the deltoid is given at 0 and 4 weeks, with three vaccinations at 6, 12, and 18 months, followed by annual boosters. As of 11 December 2008, the new BioThrax IM for intramuscular injections in the deltoid was approved by the US FDA which changes the immunity initialization sequence from 6 to 5 shots given at 0 and 4 weeks and then at 6, 12, and 18 months, followed by annual boosters. This prolonged initialization sequence is required with annual booster shots, because the anthrax vaccines primary ingredient, the Anthrax Protective Antigen, can impair the life-cycle of the human immune systems memory B-Cells and memory T-cells, through inducing the production of immunoglobulin G (IgG) which sequesters furin.The loss of memory B-Cells leads to declining concentrations of IgG which can sequester APA, and therefore declining tolerance to the presence of anthrax bacteria.
The levothyroxine dose often needs to be increased after pregnancy is confirmed, although this is based on limited evidence and some recommend that it is not always required; decisions may need to based on TSH levels.Women with anti-TPO antibodies who are trying to become pregnant (naturally or by assisted means) may require thyroid hormone supplementation even if the TSH level is normal. This is particularly true if they have had previous miscarriages or have been hypothyroid in the past. Supplementary levothyroxine may reduce the risk of preterm birth and possibly miscarriage. The recommendation is stronger in pregnant women with subclinical hypothyroidism (defined as TSH 2.5–10 mIU/L) who are anti-TPO positive, in view of the risk of overt hypothyroidism. If a decision is made not to treat, close monitoring of the thyroid function (every 4 weeks in the first 20 weeks of pregnancy) is recommended. If anti-TPO is not positive, treatment for subclinical hypothyroidism is not currently recommended. It has been suggested that many of the aforementioned recommendations could lead to unnecessary treatment, in the sense that the TSH cutoff levels may be too restrictive in some ethnic groups; there may be little benefit from treatment of subclinical hypothyroidism in certain cases. Alternative medicine
The effectiveness and safety of using Chinese herbal medicines to treat hypothyroidism is not known. Epidemiology
Worldwide about one billion people are estimated to be iodine deficient; however, it is unknown how often this results in hypothyroidism. In large population-based studies in Western countries with sufficient dietary iodine, 0.3–0.4% of the population have overt hypothyroidism.