Gulf War syndrome
Here are a few links to webpages that yet exist on the subject. [...]
This first link discusses the use of an adjutant that caused autoimmune disease , found in 95% of those military personnel that were given the vaccine. If one gives multiple vacciens at the same time, each with its adjutant, then overwhelming the immune system can occur, with infants being given multiple vaccines at the same time.
https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16221810-300-victims-of-vaccines/
1999-04-10-newscientist-com-victims-of-vaccines.pdf
Victims of vaccines
10 April 1999
A FATTY substance originally isolated from sharks could explain Gulf War
syndrome. Blood tests on sick veterans in the US show that nearly all produce
antibodies to squalene, a component of some experimental vaccines.
Congress’s General Accounting Office (GAO), which was asked to investigate,
can’t say for sure whether squalene was used on Gulf War troops. But it is now
demanding further tests for squalene antibodies in military personnel. The
Department of Defense is opposed to this.
Around 100 000 troops who served in the 1991 Gulf conflict with Iraq
developed a mysterious illness involving memory loss, thyroid disorders,
allergies, fatigue, rashes and persistent pain. Military authorities and
sufferers have long argued over the cause of the symptoms and whether a distinct
syndrome even exists.
Bob Garry, a virologist at Tulane University in New Orleans, has now tested
400 Gulf War veterans for antibodies to squalene, a polymer of fatty acids found
in small quantities in human cell membranes. Ninety-five per cent of the
veterans suffering from Gulf War syndrome (GWS) had high levels of squalene
antibodies. People don’t usually have enough squalene in their blood to prompt
the production of detectable levels of antibodies, and none of the veterans
without symptoms had antibodies. Garry’s results have been peer reviewed, he
says, and await publication.
Squalene can be released into the blood by physical injuries, where it boosts
the immune system’s response to foreign antigens. This “adjuvant” effect means
it is widely used in animal vaccines. Squalene is not licensed for use as an
adjuvant in people, although it has been used experimentally on about 12 000
people.
Garry also tested two volunteers who had received experimental herpes
vaccines containing squalene in trials run by the US National Institutes of
Health. Both have high levels of squalene antibodies and symptoms similar to
GWS. This suggests that GWS could be caused by the body turning against its own,
natural squalene.
Jim Turner, a spokesman for the Department of Defense, says: “During the Gulf
War, we never used squalene in vaccines.” But many soldiers’ vaccination records
have been lost, which makes this difficult to verify. Jack Metcalf, a Republican
member of Congress from Washington state, who asked the GAO to investigate,
says: “In light of the number of misstatements DoD made to the GAO during this
investigation, we cannot be expected to simply accept their denial of squalene
use.”
Vaccines have often come under suspicion as a cause of GWS. Gulf War soldiers
were the first to be systematically vaccinated against anthrax and plague
because Iraq was thought to have biological weapons. France was the only country
not to vaccinate its troops, and only French veterans are free of GWS. In
January, researchers at King’s College Hospital in London reported that exposure
to plague and anthrax vaccines was the factor that correlated most strongly with
GWS in British veterans. GWS activists claim that some British soldiers received
American vaccines.
GWS has also been blamed on exposure to chemicals in Iraq. But Garry found
squalene antibodies in six soldiers who were vaccinated but never went to the
Gulf.
The Gulf War Veterans Association, based in Versailles, Missouri, suspects
that most cases of GWS were caused by experimental vaccines. If so, says the
association’s Dave vonKleist, this would violate the Nuremberg Convention.
“Military personnel are not subjects for experimentation,” he says.
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Magazine issue 2181 , published 10 April 1999
Read more: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg16221810-300-victims-of-vaccines/#ixzz6nGdoDtKU
and this re: mycoplasma contamination , the mycoplasma had HIV protein stitched into its genetic structure, similar to the covid 19 issue. Garth Nicholson, his wife nancy, and the other wise famous dr cantwell are in this link.
http://www.paranoiamagazine.com/2016/05/gulf-bio-war-new-aids-like-plague-threatens-armed-forces/
2016-05-01-paranoiamagazone-com-the-gulf-bio-war-new-aids.pdf
THE GULF BIO WAR: HOW A NEW AIDS-LIKE PLAGUE THREATENS OUR ARMED FORCES
May 1, 2016
by Alan R. Cantwell, Jr., M.D.
What is the common thread which weaves through the occurrence of the highly contagious disease known as the Gulf War Syndrome, which has struck as many as 60,000 veterans? Dr. Cantwell has found a biowarfare connection. Since the Nuremberg trials, it has been against international law to use people as guinea pigs in experiments without their informed consent. In an unprecedented legal decision, the FDA allowed the Pentagon to give un-approved drugs and vaccines to soldiers without their consent. The Pentagon also refused to identify the types of drugs and injections the troops were given forcibly, rendering them powerless against genetically altered “supergerms.”
As many as 60,000 of the 700,000 Gulf War vets who served in Desert Storm in 1991 are ill with a variety of symptoms lumped together as Persian Gulf War Syndrome (GWS). Symptoms include chronic fatigue, severe neurological disorders, muscle and joint pain, shortness of breath, gastrointestinal problems, memory loss, insomnia, rashes, depression, headaches, and other complaints. GWS is a sexually transmitted disease, and is contagious via the airborne route. Soldiers are passing the illness on to wives and family members; and their children appear to have an increased incidence of birth defects.
The government and the Pentagon stand accused of ignoring the vets by denying they were exposed to chemical or biological agents in the Gulf. Originally many vets were told by military doctors that their symptoms were caused by stress. The large number of sick vets led to an official inquiry.
In August 1995, a massive government study of GWS indicated no evidence of so-called Gulf War disease. Dr. Stephen Joseph, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, claimed the soldiers were suffering from “multiple” diseases not stemming from any one cause, and that their collective health was no worse than their counterparts in civilian life. The report denied that vets were exposed to chemical agents in the Gulf.
Reynaldo Negrete, in a letter of protest to the Los Angeles Times (8/20/95), wrote:
When my son Ruben, a career Navy Seebee of 14 years, was sent to the Gulf he was a healthy young man weighing 185 pounds. When he came back four months later he had lost 20 pounds and his health. He continued to lose weight for more than a year, but the doctors at Port Hueneme and his command did nothing. Not until I had my congressman, Matthew G. Martinez, intervene on his behalf was our son admitted to the Naval Hospital in San Diego a year after arriving from the Gulf War a very sick young man. He then spent a year in the hospital, until he was medically discharged from the Navy no better off than the day he was admitted. Yet, my son continues to suffer, as does his family. My son has served his country very well, for more than 14 years. He has been deployed all over the world, and in just four short months in the Persian Gulf he comes home an invalid.”
A year later, in 1996, the Department of Defense finally admitted that 400 soldiers (later changed to 5,000; still later to 20,000) may have been exposed to toxic agents when, after the war had officially ended, the military blew up an ammunition storage depot in Kamisiyah in southern Iraq on March 4 and again on March 10, 1991. After the bombings, a U.N. inspection team informed Pentagon officials that the buildings contained chemical weapons. However, the Pentagon immediately classified the U.N. report and the troops were never alerted about possible exposure to toxic chemicals.
Despite the cover-up, exposure to chemicals cannot account for so many sick soldiers. Not all sick vets were stationed in the Kamisiyah area. Many left the Iraqi war zone before the war actually started, or arrived after the fighting stopped. In addition, exposure to chemicals cannot explain why some cases of GWS are contagious.
The first media reports of a Gulf illness surfaced in the spring of 1992, a year after the war ended. As time passed, the transmissibility of the disease was downplayed, as well as the fact that wives complained about miscarriages and “burning semen” after sex with their husbands. Veteran’s groups now claim that a third of Gulf War babies are born with birth abnormalities. LIFE magazine (November 1996) featured a story on these Gulf babies entitled “The tiny victims of Desert Storm: Has our country abandoned them?” Pictured on the cover was U.S. Army Sgt. Paul Hansen holding his three-year-old son, born with hands and feet attached to twisted stumps.
In the search for a cause of GWS, epidemiologists have been looking for a common factor that could have exposed so many Gulf War vets. Some sick vets were in the war zone for months, while others were stationed there for as little as nine days. And the illness has affected troops stationed in widely scattered geographic areas in the region.
One factor common to all the troops is that they were given experimental and potentially dangerous drugs and vaccines employed to protect them against Iraqi chemical and biowarfare agents. As early as December 1990, there were warnings about using our servicemen as medical guinea pigs. In an unprecedented legal decision, the FDA allowed the Pentagon to give unapproved drugs and vaccines without requiring consent of the soldiers. Claiming security reasons, the Pentagon also refused to identify the types or the number of drugs and injections they forced the troops to take.
An angry serviceman stationed in Saudi Arabia maintained his civil rights were violated, and sued the government in January 1991. Ever since the post World War II Nuremberg trials, which convicted many top-ranking Nazis for crimes against human nature, it has been unethical and unlawful to use people as guinea pigs in experiments without their informed consent. This legal requirement was waived when the lawsuit was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Stanley S. Harris, who cited the necessity of the military to protect the health of its troops.
Soldiers who rejected the injections were given them forcibly. Physicians who refused to cooperate with the military’s experimental vaccine program were treated harshly. Army reservist Dr. Yolanda Huet-Vaughn protested it was her duty under the Nuremberg Code of Justice not to vaccinate personnel with experimental vaccines without their consent. At Huet-Vaughn’s court-martial trial, a military judge ignored these considerations of international law and medical ethics, and sentenced the mother of three children to 30 months in prison. Under pressure from activist groups, the doctor was released from military prison after serving eight months.
Allegations that experimental drugs and vaccines are a cause of GWS have been downplayed for obvious reasons. The Pentagon does not want to publicize the idea that PGS could be a man-made disease due to unethical experiments with dangerous and possibly contaminated vaccines. Furthermore, the military has a long history of conducting covert medical experiments on its own personnel, as well as civilians; and the Agent Orange cover-up is still fresh in the minds of Vietnam war vets.
GWS is not limited to American soldiers. More than 1,100 British vets are ill. Many blame the injections they received against anthrax and plague. Englishman Tony Flint, associated with the Gulf War Veterans and Families Association, claims more than 100 vets have died of ailments ascribed to the inoculations. He says he was forced to take 13 inoculations in one week, and states there is no evidence of GWS among French troops who did not receive these vaccines.
The HIV Connection
Garth Nicholson and his wife Nancy, both respected microbiologists, have recently discovered a bacterium, a so-called “mycoplasma” in the blood of half the vets ill with GWS. The microbe associated with GWS has been identified as Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus strain). Discovered a century ago in plants, mycoplasmas are the smallest known self-replicating microbes. Larger than viruses and much smaller than common bacteria, mycoplasmas have been implicated in a variety of diseases.
The mycoplasma in GWS could not be identified using standard lab tests. Through special genetic testing Garth Nicolson was able to discover the mycoplasma. Incredibly, the microbe had a piece of the envelope gene of the AIDS virus (HIV-1) attached to it! The HIV gene makes the mycoplasma even more aggressive, allowing it to attach to cells, which it then penetrates and poisons. According to Nicolson, a mycoplasma combined with the envelope gene of the AIDS retrovirus could never have originated in nature, but only through gene splicing in a laboratory.
Both Nicolsons contracted GWD from their daughter when she returned home from Desert Storm. Because of the contagious nature of the disease, the microbiologists suspected an infectious agent, rather than a chemical weapon. When the mycoplasma was identified, the research team discovered that treatment with antibiotics, particularly doxicycline, was helpful in some cases.
In an interview on the Dave Emory radio show (10/20/96), Garth Nicolson theorizes that the microbe could have been deployed through contaminated vaccines, through the deliberate release of Iraqi bioweapons, from blowback from destroyed Iraqi bioweapon factories, or possibly from scud missile attacks. He says there has been a Mycoplasma Unit at the University of Baghdad for 22 years, manned by Iraqi scientists who were trained in the U.S. Before the war, the U.S. government exported to Iraq various biological agents, both classified and unclassified, that could be used or developed as biological warfare agents.
Did this mycoplasma + HIV bioweapon originate in the U.S. or in the Gulf? It would be extremely helpful to know if there are cases of GWS in Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and elsewhere in the Middle East. Surprisingly, the government and the media are silent on this question, although Nicolson claims 300,000 Iraqis have died and one million are sick since the war. It is rumored that 15-20% of the population of the countries surrounding Iraq are ill with GWS.
In a 40-page report entitled “Germ Warfare against America: The Desert Storm Plague and Cover-Up, Nicolson reports:
Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus) has been tested on the Texas Department of Corrections prisoners in the late 1980s prior to the Gulf War. It was tested on death row inmates as well as other inmates in Huntsville, Texas. The guards then contracted it from the inmates, and the guards then gave it to their families and community. This mycoplasma vaccine testing was funded by the U.S. Army, and today there is an outbreak of 350 people in the Huntsville area with a strange disease resembling GWS.
Garth Nicolson’s important research has appeared in the underground press, but until recently his research has been ignored by the mainstream, corporate-controlled media. On the Emory show Nicolson was asked how many soldiers have died of GWS. Although there are no official figures, he estimates that 12-15,000 vets have died of “unusual” diseases, and several thousand have died of cancer. If true, these death rates are very high considering the young age (under 25) of many of our soldiers. Apparently doctors, nurses, and medical personnel are contracting GWS from sick patients, indicating another AIDS-like epidemic in the making.
Further complicating the epidemiology of GWS is that soldiers’ shot records and even medical records have disappeared or are unavailable. In addition, the Los Angeles Times (12/5/96) reports that military logs “crucial to Gulf War veterans who believe their health problems are linked to chemical weapons” are also missing and can’t be found. These important logs cover the period March 4-10, during the bombings at Kamisiyah. The Senate Veterans Affairs Committee has recently won permission to examine General Norman Schwartzkopf’s personal logs.
At the request of Rep. Norm Dicks of Washington state, a group of military and civilian scientists and Pentagon experts met on December 23, 1996, at Walter Reed Army Hospital in Washington, to discuss Nicolson’s research. Walter Reed spokesman Ben Smith said the Army would agree to study his mycoplasma research as part of its investigation into the cause of GWS.
On December 27, 1996, a story about Garth Nicolson’s research appeared on the front-page of the Los Angeles Times. However, the most significant part of Nicholson’s research, namely that the mycoplasma had a piece of HIV attached to it, was not mentioned. The origin of the microbe was left in doubt, the writer simply stating that Nicolson’s research suggests “the primitive bacterium, called mycoplasma, was deliberately altered for Iraqi use as a biological weapon.”
Also not mentioned in the media was previous mycoplasma research conducted by the military a decade earlier. In 1986 Dr. Shyh-Ching Lo, a molecular biologist at the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in Washington, D.C., reported a “virus-like agent” derived from Kaposi’s sarcoma, the “gay cancer” associated with AIDS. Using highly technical methods of molecular biology, Lo’s “virus” was subsequently identified as the bacterium Mycoplasma fermentans (also known as M. incognitus). In 1989, Lo also reported similar mycoplasma infection as the cause of death in six young, previously healthy military personnel from New Jersey, Virginia, Guam, and Turkey, all of whom died within one to seven weeks from a progressive and mysterious “flu-like disease.” In 1991 Lo found yet another mycoplasma, Mycoplasma penetrans, in the urine of gays with AIDS. Luc Montagnier, the co-discoverer of the AIDS virus, has confirmed Lo’s mycoplasma research. The Pasteur Institute virologist believes mycoplasmas are a necessary “co-factor” that allows HIV infection to progress to full-blown AIDS.
Are mycoplasmas being developed as biological warfare weapons? Certainly all known infectious agents are screened for possible military use by biowarfare scientists around the world. As stated, there was a Mycoplasma lab in Iraq. Before the Gulf War the Iraqis freely used nerve gas against the Kurds in Northern Iraq; and after the war they used mustard gas against Shiite Muslim nomads in southern Iraq. And the U.S. Army conducted mycoplasma research in Huntsville, Texas.
Before the Gulf War the mixing of the AIDS virus (HIV) with mycoplasmas in the laboratory by Lo and Montagnier was recorded in the scientific literature. When mycoplasma was added to HIV-infected blood cells in test tubes, it made the AIDS virus more pathogenic. Silver-leaf monkeys experimentally infected with Lo’s mycoplasma all developed infections, immunosuppression, and died within 7 to 9 months with an AIDS-like “wasting syndrome.”
A “Mycoplasma Workshop,” sponsored by The National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, was held in San Antonio, Texas, in December 1989. Lo’s research was featured. When asked if his fatal mycoplasma “flu cases” were contagious, Lo replied, “We don’t know.” Interestingly, some of Lo’s patients improved with the antibiotic doxycycline, the same drug Nicolson has found effective in some cases of GWS.
Most physicians know little about mycoplasma infection, and even less about testing for these microbes. For many years this writer has reported mycoplasma-like organisms discovered in the damaged tissue of cancer, AIDS, and in auto-immune disease. This research has been published in medical journals and summarized in two books by this author: AIDS: The Mystery and the Solution (1984) and The Cancer Microbe (1990). Unfortunately, this research has been largely ignored by the AIDS and cancer establishments, as well as by so-called mycoplasma experts. These bacteria can be easily seen microscopically in the diseased tissue of AIDS (including Kaposi’s sarcoma), cancer, and certain other diseases of unknown cause.
As some people in medical science are aware, important and valid scientific discoveries are ignored because they are “politically incorrect.” Lo’s mycoplasma research has been largely ignored by the leading virologists who direct AIDS research. Similarly, Lo has ignored the published research of hundreds of other researchers who have shown mycoplasma-like microbes in cancer, AIDS, and immune diseases. The inability of scientists to consider “politically incorrect” scientific findings may explain why physicians currently have such difficulty understanding and treating new epidemics like AIDS and GWS, in which these microbes are operative.
Why does the military ignore GWS and deny its existence? Undoubtedly, chemical and biological weapons were employed in the Gulf War. Was the military fully capable of detecting these bioweapons? Or was the detection of chemical agents and bioweapons ignored or covered up? Is the military capable of protecting its troops from modern day biowarfare? Are soldiers now powerless against genetically engineered “supergerms” deployed by biowarfare scientists?
In the future, will soldiers willingly go into battle knowing that exposure to bioweapons will be ignored by their government, and knowing that no one is immune from the effects of these man-made microbes of death?•
References
“Government study of veterans finds no evidence of a Gulf War disease,” by Art Pine, Los Angeles Times, August 2, 1995.
“Gulf War toxins: Pentagon’s credibility sinks even lower,” Editorial, Los Angeles Times, October 24, 1996.
“U.N. aide fears Iraq could turn imported medicine into weapons,” by Paul Lewis, The New York Times, November 11, 1990.
“Troops may get unlicensed drug,” by Gina Kolata, The New York Times, January 4, 1991.
“Guinea pigs and disposable GIs,” by Tod Ensign, Covert Action Bulletin, Winter 1992-1993.
“Gulf War veterans seek restitution for ailments,” by William D Montalbano, Los Angeles Times, November 30, 1996.
“Were biological weapons used against our forces in the Gulf War?,” by Garth and Nancy Nicolson, Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients, May 1996.
“Papers on Gulf War missing,” Los Angeles Times, December 5, 1996.
“Army to review link between germ, Gulf War syndrome,” by Renee Tawa, Los Angeles Times, December 27, 1996.
“Isolation and identification of a novel virus from patients with AIDS,” by Shyh-Ching Lo, American Journal of Tropical Hygiene, Vol 35(4), 1986, pp. 675-676.
“Mycoplasma and AIDS: what connection?,” Lancet, January 5, 1991.
Dave Emory’s “One Step Beyond” interview with Nicolson, available from Spitfire, Box 1179, Ben Lomond, CA 95005.
Cantwell Jr, Alan, The Cancer Microbe, Los Angeles, Aries Rising Press, 1990.
Cantwell Jr, Alan, AIDS: The Mystery & The Solution, Los Angeles, Aries Rising Press, 1986
Persian Gulf War Illness
Other names
Persian Gulf War illnesses, and chronic multisymptom illness[1][2]
Summary of the Operation Desert Storm offensive ground campaign, February 24–28, 1991, by nationality
Symptoms
Vary somewhat among individuals and include fatigue, headaches, cognitive dysfunction, musculoskeletal pain, insomnia,[3] and respiratory, gastrointestinal, and dermatologic complaints
Causes
Toxic exposures during the 1990–91 Gulf War
Chronic fatigue syndrome / myalgic encephalitis (CFS/ME); fibromyalgia; multiple sclerosis (MS)
Frequency
25% to 34% of the 697,000 U.S. troops of the 1990–91 Gulf War
Gulf War syndrome or Gulf War illness is a chronic and multi-symptomatic disorder affecting returning military veterans of the 1990–1991 Persian Gulf War.[4][5][6] A wide range of acute and chronic symptoms have been linked to it, including fatigue, muscle pain, cognitive problems, insomnia,[3] rashes and diarrhea.[7] Approximately 250,000[8] of the 697,000 U.S. veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War are afflicted with enduring chronic multi-symptom illness, a condition with serious consequences.[9]
From 1995 to 2005, the health of combat veterans worsened in comparison with nondeployed veterans, with the onset of more new chronic diseases, functional impairment, repeated clinic visits and hospitalizations, chronic fatigue syndrome-like illness, posttraumatic stress disorder, and greater persistence of adverse health incidents.[10]
Exposure to pesticides and pills containing pyridostigmine bromide (used as a pretreatment to protect against nerve agent effects) has been found to be associated with the neurological effects seen in Gulf war syndrome.[11][12] Other causes that have been investigated are sarin, cyclosarin, and emissions from oil well fires, but their relationship to the illness is not as clear.[11][12]
Studies have consistently indicated that Gulf War syndrome is not the result of combat or other stressors and that Gulf War veterans have lower rates of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) than veterans of other wars.[9][11]
According to a 2013 report by the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, veterans of the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan may also suffer from Gulf War syndrome,[13] though later findings identified causes that would not have been present in those wars.[11][12]
[...]
According to an April 2010 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sponsored study conducted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), part of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 250,000[8] of the 696,842 U.S. servicemen and women in the 1991 Gulf War continue to suffer from chronic multi-symptom illness, which the IOM now refers to as Gulf War illness. The IOM found that it continued to affect these veterans nearly 20 years after the war.[citation needed]
According to the IOM, "It is clear that a significant portion of the soldiers deployed to the Gulf War have experienced troubling constellations of symptoms that are difficult to categorize," said committee chair Stephen L. Hauser, professor and chair, department of neurology, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). "Unfortunately, symptoms that cannot be easily quantified are sometimes incorrectly dismissed as insignificant and receive inadequate attention and funding by the medical and scientific establishment. Veterans who continue to suffer from these symptoms deserve the very best that modern science and medicine can offer to speed the development of effective treatments, cures, and—we hope—prevention. Our report suggests a path forward to accomplish this goal, and we believe that through a concerted national effort and rigorous scientific input, answers can be found."[8]
Questions still exist regarding why certain veterans showed, and still show, medically unexplained symptoms while others did not, why symptoms are diverse in some and specific in others, and why combat exposure is not consistently linked to having or not having symptoms. The lack of data on veterans' pre-deployment and immediate post-deployment health status and lack of measurement and monitoring of the various substances to which veterans may have been exposed make it difficult — and in many cases impossible — to reconstruct what happened to service members during their deployments nearly 20 years after the fact, the committee noted.[8] The report called for a substantial commitment to improving identification and treatment of multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans focussing on continued monitoring of Gulf War veterans, improved medical care, examination of genetic differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic groups and studies of environment-gene interactions.[8]
A variety of signs and symptoms have been associated with GWI:
Symptom
U.S.
UK
Australia
Denmark
Fatigue
23%
23%
10%
16%
Headache
17%
18%
7%
13%
Memory problems
32%
28%
12%
23%
Muscle/joint pain
18%
17%
5%
2% (<2%)
Diarrhea
16%
9%
13%
Dyspepsia/indigestion
12%
5%
9%
Neurological problems
16%
8%
12%
Terminal tumors
33%
9%
11%
* This table applies only to coalition forces involved in combat.
Condition
U.S.
UK
Canada
Australia
Skin conditions
20–21%
21%
4–7%
4%
Arthritis/joint problems
6–11%
10%
(-1)–3%
2%
Gastro-intestinal (GI) problems
15%
5–7%
1%
Respiratory problem
4–7%
2%
2–5%
1%
Chronic fatigue syndrome
1–4%
3%
0%
Post-traumatic stress disorder
2–6%
9%
6%
3%
Chronic multi-symptom illness
13–25%
26%
Birth defects have been suggested as a consequence of Gulf War deployment. However, a 2006 review of several studies of international coalition veterans' children found no strong or consistent evidence of an increase in birth defects, finding a modest increase in birth defects that was within the range of the general population, in addition to being unable to exclude recall bias as an explanation for the results.[15] A 2008 report stated that "it is difficult to draw firm conclusions related to birth defects and pregnancy outcomes in Gulf War veterans", observing that while there have been "significant, but modest, excess rates of birth defects in children of Gulf War veterans", the "overall rates are still within the normal range found in the general population".[16] The same report called for more research on the issue.
Gulf War veterans have been identified to have an increased risk of multiple sclerosis.[17]
A 2017 study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found that veterans possibly exposed to chemical warfare agents at Khamisiyah experienced different patterns of brain cancer mortality risk compared to the other groups, with veterans possibly exposed having a higher risk of brain cancer in the time period immediately following the Gulf War.[18]
The United States Congress mandated the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs' contract with the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) to provide reports on Gulf War illnesses. Since 1998, the NAS's Institute of Medicine (IOM) has authored ten such reports.[19] In addition to the many physical and psychological issues involved in any war zone deployment, Gulf War veterans were exposed to a unique mix of hazards not previously experienced during wartime. These included pyridostigmine bromide pills (given to protect troops from the effects of nerve agents), depleted uranium munitions, and multiple simultaneous vaccinations including anthrax and botulinum toxin vaccines. The oil and smoke that spewed for months from hundreds of burning oil wells presented another exposure hazard not previously encountered in a war zone. Military personnel also had to cope with swarms of insects, requiring the widespread use of pesticides. High-powered microwaves were used to disrupt Iraqi communications, and though it is unknown whether this might have contributed to the syndrome, research has suggested that safety limits for electromagnetic radiation are too lenient.[20]
The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC), a VA federal advisory committee mandated by Congress in legislation enacted in 1998,[21][22] found that pre-2005 studies suggested the veterans' illnesses are neurological and apparently are linked to exposure to neurotoxins, such as the nerve gas sarin, the anti-nerve gas drug pyridostigmine bromide, and pesticides that affect the nervous system. The RAC concluded in 2004 that, "research studies conducted since the war have consistently indicated that psychiatric illness, combat experience or other deployment-related stressors do not explain Gulf War veterans illnesses in the large majority of ill veterans."[23]
The RAC concluded[11] that "exposure to pesticides and/or to PB [pyridostigmine bromide nerve agent protective pills] are causally associated with GWI and the neurological dysfunction in GW veterans. Exposure to sarin and cyclosarin and to oil well fire emissions are also associated with neurologically based health effects, though their contribution to development of the disorder known as GWI is less clear. Gene-environment interactions are likely to have contributed to development of GWI in deployed veterans. The health consequences of chemical exposures in the GW and other conflicts have been called “toxic wounds” by veterans. This type of injury requires further study and concentrated treatment research efforts that may also benefit other occupational groups with similar exposure-related illnesses."[12]
Depleted uranium[edit]
Major Gulf War engagements in which DU rounds were used
Depleted uranium (DU) was widely used in tank kinetic energy penetrator and autocannon rounds for the first time ever during the Gulf War[24] and has been suggested as a possible cause of Gulf War syndrome.[25] A 2008 review by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found no association between DU exposure and multisymptom illness, concluding that "exposure to DU munitions is not likely a primary cause of Gulf War illness". However, there are suggestions that long-term exposure to high doses of DU may cause other health problems unrelated to GWI.[9]
More recent medical literature reviews disagree, stating for example that, "the number of Gulf War veterans who developed the Gulf War syndrome following exposure to high quantities of DU has risen to about one-third of the 800,000 U.S. forces deployed," with 25,000 of those having suffered premature death.[26] Since 2011, US combat veterans may claim disability compensation for health problems related to exposure to depleted uranium.[27] The Veterans Administration decides these claims on a case-by-case basis.
A team at the University of Portsmouth lead by Professor Randall Parrish tested urine samples of 154 US veterans in 2021, reporting that no soldiers with the syndrome were exposed to significant amounts of depleted uranium and that it "is not and never was in the bodies of those who are ill at sufficient quantities to cause disease".[28][29]
Pyridostigmine bromide nerve gas antidote[edit]
The US military issued pyridostigmine bromide (PB) pills to protect against exposure to nerve gas agents such as sarin and soman. PB was used as a prophylactic against nerve agents; it is not a vaccine. Taken before exposure to nerve agents, PB was thought to increase the efficiency of nerve agent antidotes. PB had been used since 1955 for patients suffering from myasthenia gravis with doses up to 1,500 mg a day, far in excess of the 90 mg given to soldiers, and was considered safe by the FDA at either level for indefinite use and its use to pre-treat nerve agent exposure had recently been approved.[30]
Given both the large body of epidemiological data on myasthenia gravis patients and follow-up studies done on veterans it was concluded that while it was unlikely that health effects reported today by Gulf War veterans are the result of exposure solely to PB, use of PB was causally associated with illness.[9] However, a later review by the Institute of Medicine concluded that the evidence was not strong enough to establish a causal relationship.[31]
Organophosphates[edit]
Organophosphate-induced delayed neuropathy (OPIDN, aka organophosphate-induced delayed polyneuropathy) may contribute to the unexplained illnesses of the Gulf War veterans.[32][33]
Organophosphate pesticides[edit]
The use of organophosphate pesticides and insect repellents during the first Gulf War is credited with keeping rates of pest-borne diseases low. Pesticide use is one of only two exposures consistently identified by Gulf War epidemiologic studies to be significantly associated with Gulf War illness.[34] Multisymptom illness profiles similar to Gulf War illness have been associated with low-level pesticide exposures in other human populations. In addition, Gulf War studies have identified dose-response effects, indicating that greater pesticide use is more strongly associated with Gulf War illness than more limited use.[35] Pesticide use during the Gulf War has also been associated with neurocognitive deficits and neuroendocrine alterations in Gulf War veterans in clinical studies conducted following the end of the war. The 2008 report concluded that "all available sources of evidence combine to support a consistent and compelling case that pesticide use during the Gulf War is causally associated with Gulf War illness."[9]
Sarin nerve agent[edit]
See also: Iraqi chemical weapons program
Many of the symptoms of Gulf War illness are similar to the symptoms of organophosphate, mustard gas, and nerve gas poisoning.[36][37] Gulf War veterans were exposed to a number of sources of these compounds, including nerve gas and pesticides.[38]
Chemical detection units from Czechoslovakia, France, and Britain confirmed chemical agents. French detection units detected chemical agents. Both Czech and French forces reported detections immediately to U.S. forces. U.S. forces detected, confirmed, and reported chemical agents; and U.S. soldiers were awarded medals for detecting chemical agents. The Riegle Report said that chemical alarms went off 18,000 times during the Gulf War. After the air war started on January 16, 1991, coalition forces were chronically exposed to low but nonlethal levels of chemical and biological agents released primarily by direct Iraqi attack via missiles, rockets, artillery, or aircraft munitions and by fallout from allied bombings of Iraqi chemical warfare munitions facilities.[39]
In 1997, the US Government released an unclassified report that stated:
"The US Intelligence Community (IC) has assessed that Iraq did not use chemical weapons during the Gulf war. However, based on a comprehensive review of intelligence information and relevant information made available by the United Nations Special Commission (UNSCOM), we conclude that chemical warfare (CW) agent was released as a result of US postwar demolition of rockets with chemical warheads in a bunker (called Bunker 73 by Iraq) and a pit in an area known as Khamisiyah."[40]
Over 125,000 U.S. troops and 9,000 U.K. troops were exposed to nerve gas and mustard gas when the Iraqi depot in Khamisiyah was destroyed.[citation needed]
Recent studies have confirmed earlier suspicions that exposure to sarin, in combination with other contaminants such as pesticides and PB were related to reports of veteran illness. Estimates range from 100,000 to 300,000 individuals exposed to nerve agents.[41]
While low-level exposure to nerve agents has been suggested as the cause of GWI, the 2008 report by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War illnesses (RAC) stated that "evidence is inconsistent or limited in important ways."[42] The VA's 2014 RAC report concluded that, "exposure to the nerve gas agents sarin/cyclosarin has been linked in two more studies to changes in structural magnetic resonance imaging findings that are associated with cognitive decrements, further supporting the conclusion from evidence reviewed in the 2008 report that exposure to these agents is etiologically important to the central nervous system dysfunction that occurs in some subsets of Gulf War veterans."[11]
According to the VA's 2008 RAC report, "For several Gulf War exposures, an association with Gulf War illness cannot be ruled out. These include low-level exposure to nerve agents, close proximity to oil well fires, receipt of multiple vaccines, and effects of combinations of Gulf War exposures." However, several potential causes of GWI were deemed, "not likely to have caused Gulf War illness for the majority of ill veterans," including "depleted uranium, anthrax vaccine, fuels, solvents, sand and particulates, infectious diseases, and chemical agent resistant coating (CARC)," for which "there is little evidence supporting an association with Gulf War illness or a major role is unlikely based on what is known about exposure patterns during the Gulf War and more recent deployments."[42]
The VA's 2014 RAC report reinforced its 2008 report findings: "The research reviewed in this report supports and reinforces the conclusion in the 2008 RACGWVI report that exposures to pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide are causally associated with Gulf War illness. Evidence also continues to demonstrate that Gulf War illness is not the result of psychological stressors during the war." It also found additional evidence since the 2008 report for the role of sarin in GWI, but inadequate evidence regarding exposures to oil well fires, vaccines, and depleted uranium to make new conclusions about them.[11]
Oil well fires[edit]
During the war, many oil wells were set on fire in Kuwait by the retreating Iraqi army, and the smoke from those fires was inhaled by large numbers of soldiers, many of whom suffered acute pulmonary and other chronic effects, including asthma and bronchitis. However, firefighters who were assigned to the oil well fires and encountered the smoke, but who did not take part in combat, have not had GWI symptoms.[14](pp148, 154, 156) The 2008 RAC report states that "evidence [linking oil well fires to GWI] is inconsistent or limited in important ways."[42]
Anthrax vaccine[edit]
Iraq had loaded anthrax, botulinum toxin, and aflatoxin into missiles and artillery shells in preparing for the Gulf War and these munitions were deployed to four locations in Iraq.[43] During Operation Desert Storm, 41% of U.S. combat soldiers and 75% of UK combat soldiers were vaccinated against anthrax.[14](p73) Reactions included local skin irritation, some lasting for weeks or months.[44] While the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the vaccine, it never went through large-scale clinical trials.[45]
While recent studies have demonstrated the vaccine is highly reactogenic,[46] and causes motor neuron death in mice,[47] there is no clear evidence or epidemiological studies on Gulf War veterans linking the vaccine to Gulf War illness. Combining this with the lack of symptoms from current deployments of individuals who have received the vaccine led the Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses to conclude that the vaccine is not a likely cause of Gulf War illness for most ill veterans.[9] However, the committee report does point out that veterans who received a larger number of various vaccines in advance of deployment have shown higher rates of persistent symptoms since the war.[48][9]
Combat stress[edit]
Research studies conducted since the war have consistently indicated that psychiatric illness, combat experience or other deployment-related stressors do not explain Gulf War veterans illnesses in the large majority of ill veterans, according to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) review committee.[citation needed]
An April 2010 Institute of Medicine review found, "the excess of unexplained medical symptoms reported by deployed [1991] Gulf war veterans cannot be reliably ascribed to any known psychiatric disorder",[49] although they also concluded that "the constellation of unexplained symptoms associated with the Gulf War illness complex could result from interplay between both biological and psychological factors."[50]
The 2008 VA report on Gulf War illness and the Health of Gulf War Veterans suggested a possible link between GWI and chronic, nonspecific inflammation of the central nervous system that cause pain, fatigue and memory issues, possibly due to pathologically persistent increases in cytokines and suggested further research be conducted on this issue.[51]
Clinical diagnosis of Gulf War illness has been complicated by multiple case definitions. In 2014, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine (IOM)—contracted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for the task—released a report concluding that the creation of a new case definition for chronic multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans was not possible because of insufficient evidence in published studies regarding its onset, duration, severity, frequency of symptoms, exclusionary criteria, and laboratory findings. Instead, the report recommended the use of two case definitions, the "Kansas" definition and the "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)" definition, noting: "There is a set of symptoms (fatigue, pain, neurocognitive) that are reported in all the studies that have been reviewed. The CDC definition captures those three symptoms; the Kansas definition also captures them, but it also includes the symptoms reported most frequently by Gulf War veterans."[52]
The Kansas case definition is more specific and may be more applicable for research settings, while the CDC case definition is more broad and may be more applicable for clinical settings.[52]
Medical ailments associated with service in the 1990–1991 Gulf War have been recognized by both the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.[4]
Before 1998, the terms Gulf War syndrome, Gulf War veterans' illness, unexplained illness, and undiagnosed illness were used interchangeably to describe chronic unexplained symptoms in veterans of the 1991 Gulf War. The term chronic multisymptom illness (CMI) was first used following publication of a 1998 study[35] describing chronic unexplained symptoms in Air Force veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.[31]
In a 2014 report contracted by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine recommended the use the term Gulf War illness rather than chronic multisymptom illness.[52] Since that time, relevant publications by the National Academy of Science and the U.S. Department of Defense have used only the term Gulf War illness (GWI).
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) confusingly still uses an array of both old and new terminology for Gulf War illness. VA's specialty clinical evaluation War Related Illness and Injury Study Centers (WRIISCs) use the recommended term Gulf War illness,[53] as do VA's Office of Research and Development (VA-ORD) and many recent VA research publications.[54] However, VA's Public Health website still uses Gulf War veterans' medically unexplained illnesses, chronic multi-symptom illness (CMI), and undiagnosed illnesses, but explains that VA doesn't use the term Gulf War syndrome because of varying symptoms.[55]
The Veterans Health Administration (VHA) originally classified individuals with related ailments believed to be connected to their service in the Persian Gulf a special non-ICD-9 code DX111, as well as ICD-9 code V65.5.[56]
In 1998, the State of Kansas Persian Gulf Veterans Health Initiative sponsored an epidemiological survey led by Dr. Lea Steele of deployment-related symptoms in 2,030 Gulf War veterans. The result was a "clinically based descriptive definition using correlated symptoms" in six symptom groups: fatigue and sleep problems, pain, neurologic and mood, gastrointestinal, respiratory symptoms, and skin (dermatologic) symptoms.[52]
To meet the "Kansas" case definition, a veteran of the 1990–91 Gulf War must have symptoms in at least three of the six symptom domains, which during the survey were scored based on severity ("severity"). Symptom onset must have developed during or after deploying to the 1990–91 Gulf War theatre of operations ("onset") and must have been present in the year before interview ("duration"). Participants were excluded if they had a diagnosis of or were being treated for any of several conditions that might otherwise explain their symptoms ("exclusionary criteria"), including cancer, diabetes, heart disease, chronic infectious disease, lupus, multiple sclerosis, stroke, or any serious psychiatric condition.[52]
Applying the Kansas case definition to the original Kansas study cohort resulted in a prevalence of Gulf War illness of 34.2% in Gulf War veterans and 8.3% in nondeployed Gulf War era veterans, or an excess rate of GWI of 26.3% in Gulf War veterans.[52]
Also in 1998, a study published by Dr. Keiji Fukuda under the auspices of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) examined chronic multisymptom illness through a cross-sectional survey of 3,675 ill and healthy U.S. Air Force veterans of the 1990–91 Gulf War, including from a Pennsylvania-based Air National Guard unit and three comparison Air Force units. The CDC case definition was derived from clinical data and statistical analyses.[52]
The result was a symptom-category approach to a case definition, with three symptom categories: fatigue, mood–cognition, and musculoskeletal. To meet the case definition, the veteran of the 1990–91 Gulf War must have symptoms in two of the three categories and have experienced the illness for six months or longer ("duration").[52]
The original study also including a determination of severity of symptoms ("severity"). "Severe cases were identified if at least one symptom in each of the required categories was rated as severe. Of 1,155 participating Gulf War veterans, 6% had severe CMI, and 39% had mild to moderate CMI; of the 2,520 nondeployed era veterans Of 1,155 participating Gulf War veterans, 6% had severe CMI, and 39% had mild to moderate CMI; of the 2,520 nondeployed era veterans, 0.7% had severe and 14% had mild to moderate CMI."[52]
A 2013 report by the Institute of Medicine reviewed the peer-reviewed published medical literature for evidence regarding treatments for symptoms associated with chronic multisymptom illness (CMI) in 1990–91 Gulf War veterans, and in other chronic multisymptom conditions. For the studies the report reviewed that were specifically regarding CMI in 1990–91 Gulf War veterans (Gulf War illness), the report made the following conclusions:[31]
Doxycycline: "Although the study of doxycycline was found to have high strength of evidence and was conducted in a group of 1991 Gulf War veterans who had CMI, it did not demonstrate efficacy; that is, doxycycline did not reduce or eliminate the symptoms of CMI in the study population."
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exercise: "These studies evaluated the effects of exercise and CBT in combination and individually. The therapeutic benefit of exercise was unclear in those studies. Group CBT rather than exercise may confer the main therapeutic benefit with respect to physical symptoms."
The report concluded: "On the basis of the evidence reviewed, the committee cannot recommend any specific therapy as a set treatment for [Gulf War] veterans who have CMI. The committee believes that a 'one-size-fits-all' approach is not effective for managing [Gulf War] veterans who have CMI and that individualized health care management plans are necessary."[31]
By contrast, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) noted in a May 2018 publication that the primary focus of its Gulf War illness Research Program (GWIRP) "has been to fund research studies to identify treatment targets and test interventional approaches to alleviate symptoms. While most of these studies remain in progress, several have already shown varying levels of promise as GWI treatments."
According to the May 2018 DoD publication:[57][excessive quote]
Published Results on Treatments
The earliest federally funded multi-center clinical trials were VA- and DoD-funded trials that focused on antibiotic treatment (doxycycline) (Donta, 2004) and cognitive behavioral therapy with exercise (Donta, 2003). Neither intervention provided long-lasting improvement for a substantial number of Veterans.
Preliminary analysis from a placebo-controlled trial showed that 100 mg of Coenzyme Q10 (known as CoQ10 or Ubiquinone) significantly improved general self-reported health and physical functioning, including among 20 symptoms, each of which was present in at least half of the study participants, with the exception of sleep. These improvements included reducing commonly reported symptoms of fatigue, dysphoric mood, and pain (Golomb, 2014). These results are currently being expanded in a GWIRP-funded trial of a "mitochondrial cocktail" for GWI of CoQ10 plus a number of nutrients chosen to support cellular energy production and defend against oxidative stress. The treatment is also being investigated in a larger, VA- sponsored Phase III trial of Ubiquinol, the reduced form of CoQ10.
In a randomized, sham-controlled VA-funded trial of a nasal CPAP mask (Amin, 2011-b), symptomatic GW Veterans with sleep-disordered breathing receiving the CPAP therapy showed significant improvements in fatigue scores, cognitive function, sleep quality, and measures of physical and mental health (Amin, 2011a).
Preliminary data from a GWIRP-funded acupuncture treatment study showed that Veterans reported significant reductions in pain and both primary and secondary health complaints, with results being more positive in the bi-weekly versus weekly treatment group (Conboy, 2012). Current studies funded by the GWIRP and the VA are also investigating yoga as a treatment for GWI.
An amino acid supplement containing L-carnosine was found to reduce irritable bowel syndrome-associated diarrhea in a randomized, controlled GWIRP-funded trial in GW Veterans (Baraniuk, 2013). Veterans receiving L-carnosine showed a significant improvement in performance in a cognitive task, but no improvement in fatigue, pain, hyperalgesia, or activity levels.
Results from a 26 week GWIRP-funded trial comparing standard care to nasal irrigation with either saline or a xylitol solution revealed that both irrigation protocols reduced GWI respiratory (chronic rhinosinusitis) and fatigue symptoms (Hayer, 2015).
Administration of the glucocorticoid receptor antagonist mifepristone to GW Veterans in a GWIRP-funded randomized trial resulted in an improvement in verbal learning, but no improvement in self-reported physical health or other self-reported measures of mental health (Golier, 2016).
Ongoing Intervention Studies
The GWIRP is currently funding many early-phase clinical trials aimed at GWI. Interventions include direct electrical nerve stimulation, repurposing FDA-approved pharmaceuticals, and dietary protocols and/or nutraceuticals. Both ongoing and closed GWIRP-supported clinical treatment trials and pilot studies can be found at http://cdmrp.army.mil/gwirp/resources/cinterventions.shtml.
A Clinical Consortium Award was offered [in FY2017] to support a group of institutions, coordinated through an Operations Center that will conceive, design, develop, and conduct collaborative Phase I and II clinical evaluations of promising therapeutic agents for the management or treatment of GWI. These mechanisms were designed to build on the achievements of the previously established consortia and to further promote collaboration and resource sharing.
The U.S Congress has made significant and continuing investment in DoD's Gulf War illness treatment research, with $129 million appropriated for the GWIRP between federal fiscal years (FY) 2006 and 2016.[58] The funding has risen from $5 million in FY2006, to $20 million each year from FY2013 through FY2017,[59] and to $21 million for FY2018.[60]
According to the May 2018 DoD publication cited above, "Research suggests that the GWI symptomology experienced by Veterans has not improved over the last 25 years, with few experiencing improvement or recovery ... . Many [Gulf War] Veterans will soon begin to experience the common co-morbidities associated with aging. The effect that aging will have on this unique and vulnerable population remains a matter of significant concern, and population-based research to obtain a better understanding of mortality, morbidity, and symptomology over time is needed."[57]
The 2008 and 2014 VA (RAC) reports and the 2010 IOM report found that the chronic multisymptom illness in Gulf War veterans—Gulf War illness—is more prevalent in Gulf War veterans than their non-deployed counterparts or veterans of previous conflicts.[9][11][49] While a 2009 study found the pattern of comorbidities similar for actively deployed and nondeployed Australian military personnel, the large body of U.S. research reviewed in the VA and IOM reports showed the opposite in U.S. troops.[61] The VA's 2014 RAC report found Gulf War illness in "an excess of 26–32 percent of Gulf War veterans compared to nondeployed era veterans" in pre-2008 studies, and "an overall multisymptom illness prevalence of 37 percent in Gulf War veterans and an excess prevalence of 25 percent" in a later, larger VA study.[11]
According to a May 2018 report by the U.S. Department of Defense, "GWI is estimated to have affected 175,000 to 250,000 of the nearly 700,000 troops deployed to the 1990–1991 GW theater of operations. Twenty-seven of the 28 Coalition members participating in the GW conflict have reported GWI in their troops. Epidemiologic studies indicate that rates of GWI vary in different subgroups of GW Veterans. GWI affects Veterans who served in the U.S. Army and Marines Corps at higher rates than those who served in the Navy and Air Force, and U.S. enlisted personnel are affected more than officers. Studies also indicate that GWI rates differ according to where Veterans were located during deployment, with the highest rates among troops who served in forward areas."[57]
Epidemiologic studies have looked at many suspected causal factors for Gulf War illness as seen in veteran populations. Below is a summary of epidemiologic studies of veterans displaying multisymptom illness and their exposure to suspect conditions from the 2008 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report.[62]
A fuller understanding of immune function in ill Gulf War veterans is needed, particularly in veteran subgroups with different clinical characteristics and exposure histories. It is also important to determine the extent to which identified immune perturbations may be associated with altered neurological and endocrine processes that are associated with immune regulation.[63] Very limited cancer data have been reported for U.S. Gulf War veterans in general, and no published research on cases occurring after 1999. Because of the extended latency periods associated with most cancers, it is important that cancer information is brought up to date and that cancer rates be assessed in Gulf War veterans on an ongoing basis. In addition, cancer rates should be evaluated in relation to identifiable exposure and location subgroups.[64]
[...]
An early argument in the years following the Gulf War was that similar syndromes have been seen as an after effect of other conflicts — for example, "shell shock" after World War I, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after the Vietnam War.[66] Cited as evidence for this argument was a review of the medical records of 15,000 American Civil War soldiers showing that "those who lost at least 5% of their company had a 51% increased risk of later development of cardiac, gastrointestinal, or nervous disease."[67]
Early Gulf War research also failed to accurately account for the prevalence, duration, and health impact of Gulf War illness. For example, a November 1996 article in the New England Journal of Medicine found no difference in death rates, hospitalization rates, or self-reported symptoms between Persian Gulf veterans and non-Persian Gulf veterans. This article was a compilation of dozens of individual studies involving tens of thousands of veterans. The study did find a statistically significant elevation in the number of traffic accidents suffered by Gulf War veterans.[68] An April 1998 article in Emerging Infectious Diseases similarly found no increased rate of hospitalization and better health on average for veterans of the Persian Gulf War in comparison to those who stayed home.[69]
In contrast to those early studies, in January 2006, a study led by Melvin Blanchard published in the Journal of Epidemiology, part of the "National Health Survey of Gulf War-Era Veterans and Their Families", found that veterans deployed in the Persian Gulf War had nearly twice the prevalence of chronic multisymptom illness, a cluster of symptoms similar to a set of conditions often at that time called Gulf War Syndrome.[70]
Louis Jones Jr. claimed Gulf War syndrome as a defense in his murder trial
On November 17, 2008, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC), a Congressionally mandated federal advisory committee composed of VA-appointed clinicians, researchers, and representative Gulf War veterans,[71] issued a major report announcing scientific findings, in part, that "Gulf War illness is real", that GWI is a distinct physical condition, and that it is not psychological in nature. The 454 page report reviewed 1,840 published studies to form its conclusions identifying the high prevalence of Gulf War illness, suggesting likely causes rooted in toxic exposures while ruling out combat stress as a cause, and opining that treatments likely could be found. It recommended that Congress increase funding for treatment-focused Gulf War illness research to at least $60 million per year.[72][42]
In March 2013, a hearing was held before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations of the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs, U.S. House of Representatives, to determine not whether Gulf War illness exists, but rather how it is identified, diagnosed and treated, and how the tools put in place to aid these efforts have been used.[73]
By 2016, the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) concluded there was sufficient evidence of a positive association between deployment to the 1990–1991 Gulf War and Gulf War illness.[74]
Louis Jones Jr., the perpetrator of the 1995 murder of Tracie McBride, stated that the Gulf War syndrome caused him to commit the crime and he sought clemency, hoping to avoid the death penalty given to him by a federal court.[75] Jones was executed in 2003.[76]
On March 14, 2014, Representative Mike Coffman introduced the Gulf War Health Research Reform Act of 2014 (H.R. 4261; 113th Congress) into the United States House of Representatives, where it passed the House by unanimous consent but then died in Congress when the Senate failed to take action on it.[77] The bill would have altered the relationship between the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses (RAC) and the United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) under which the RAC is constituted. The bill would have made the RAC an independent organization within the VA, require that a majority of the RAC's members be appointed by Congress instead of the VA, and authorized the RAC to release its reports without needing prior approval from the VA Secretary.[78][79] The RAC is responsible for investigating Gulf War illness, a chronic multisymptom disorder affecting returning military veterans of the 1990–91 Gulf War.[4]
In the year prior to the consideration of this bill, the VA and the RAC were at odds with one another.[79] The VA replaced all but one of the members of the RAC, removed some of their supervisory tasks, tried to influence the board to decide that stress, rather than biology was the cause of Gulf War illness, and told the RAC that it could not publish reports without permission.[79] The RAC was created after Congress decided that the VA's research into the issue was flawed, and focused on psychological causes, while mostly ignoring biological ones.[79]
The RAC was first authorized under the Veterans Programs Enhancement Act of 1998 (Section 104 of Public Law 105-368, enacted November 11, 1998, and now codified as 38 U.S.C. § 527 note).[21][22] While the law directing its creation mandated that it be established not later than January 1, 1999,[22] the RAC's first charter was not issued until January 23, 2002, by VA Secretary Anthony Principi.[80] The RAC convened for its first meetings on April 11–12, 2002.[14]
Michael Donnelly, an activist for sufferers of Gulf War illness