By: ANNE USHER/Cox News Service
16 November 2008
WASHINGTON - At least one in four U.S. veterans of the 1991 Gulf War suffers from a multi-symptom illness caused by exposure to toxic chemicals during the conflict, a congressionally mandated report being released Monday found.
For much of the past 17 years, government officials have maintained that these veterans -- more than 175,000 out of about 697,000 deployed -- are merely suffering the effects of wartime stress, even as more have come forward recently with severe ailments.
“The extensive body of scientific research now available consistently indicates that ’Gulf War illness’ is real, that it is the result of neurotoxic exposures during Gulf War deployment, and that few veterans have recovered or substantially improved with time,” said the report, being released Monday by a panel of scientists and veterans. A copy was obtained by Cox Newspapers.
Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and widespread pain. It may also include chronic digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and skin rashes.
Two things the military provided to troops in large quantities to protect them -- pesticides and pyridostigmine bromide (PB), aimed at thwarting the effects of nerve gas -- are the most likely culprits, the panel found.
The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses, created by Congress in 2002, presented its 450-page report to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake on Monday. It said its report is the first to review the hundreds of U.S. and international studies on Gulf War vets since that have been conducted the mid-1990s.
In a 2004 draft report to Congress, the panel said that many Gulf veterans were suffering from neurological damage caused by exposure to toxic chemicals.
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25/01/2006 from transcript of Simon Wessely's lecture at Gresham College, 'The true story of Gulf War Syndrome':
"....Let’s take the third and final view, and this seems a little strange. Could you get Gulf War illness, Gulf War Syndrome, without actually serving in the Gulf War at all? Well, the answer is, for some, you can. [Illustration on screen.] Here we have the symptoms again: that’s the symptoms of Gulf War illness, Gulf War Syndrome, taken from Newsweek magazine, and they have compared them with the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome, and you can see they overlap considerably. I have seen, as I said at the beginning, patients with chronic fatigue syndrome for most of my clinical career, and many of them resemble, in many respects, those with Gulf War illness. Of course my patients in Camberwell don’t serve in the military and didn’t go to the Gulf, though that slide I showed you with the multiple symptoms, it could just as easily be from this, Charlie Shepherd’s book, or it could be from other things – there’s a book on food allergy, this is a book on dental amalgam. In other words, there are also people who have similar symptoms but don’t appear in the military context. So you seem to be able to get to this position without having served in the military, and what that reminds us is that those in the military, also have health concerns very much the same as you and I.
.....................So my story then: something old, we have seen some of these before; something new, there was a definite hazard with some of the precautions that were taken to protect Gulf veterans; something borrowed, soldiers can also be civilians and the things that concern us also can concern them; something blue, the psychiatry of Gulf War is the psychiatry more of depression than it is of PTSD.(Post Traumatic Stress Disorder)"
yes prof.w. - put that in your pipe and smoke it - be 'interesting' to see what mind-twisting, tiresome tosh he comes up with to weasel his way out of this one.
only lobotomized lemmings in a trance could seriously give this deluded idiot's views any credence - it seems he can't read books / read research / recognise neurological illness / evidence when it is staring him in the face a mere two inches from his hooter - why on earth does his profession accord him any respect? where is their integrity? why is he still being allowed to practice? hasn't he heard the old saying 'first do no harm'?
War chiefs in denial over Gulf War Syndrome (Newcastle Sunday Sun, 23 November 2008)
23-11-08
BY: PHIL DOHERTY
Defence chiefs have been accused of backtracking after they rejected a major report into Gulf War Syndrome which says the condition does exist.
According to the National Gulf Veterans and Families’ Association, NGVFA, the Ministry of Defence had refused to fund a study of its own, saying the US Research Advisory Committee findings would put an end to the controversy once and for all.
But now that the report has concluded the condition is real and was caused by exposure to pesticides and nerve protection pills, the NGVFA says the MoD has changed its tune.
Spokesman Shaun Rusling said: “When the US announced they were conducting this study, the MoD said it was a waste of time doing similar research because the US one would be the last word on Gulf War Syndrome.
“But now the MoD are giving out statements that only tell half the truth, conveniently forgetting how this was supposed to be the ‘definitive’ study.
“The MoD don’t want to accept this report because it names the two things they have denied caused the ill-health in veterans . . . the pesticides and the nerve agent protection pills, known as NAPS.
“The NAPS tablets were never tested for use in desert conditions. Those given the tablets on duty in the Gulf suffered bladder and bowel problems. And, for many, these symptoms never stopped.”
The report has been backed by Lord Craig of Radley, who was Britain’s Chief of Defence Staff at the time of the war.
He said: “Recognition of the full extent of the illnesses suffered by these veterans of the conflict, and the obligation owed to them, is long overdue.”
Many of the 55,000 British troops who fought in Kuwait have reported symptoms including muscle and joint pains, mood swings, loss of concentration and memory, chronic fatigue and rare cancers.
The MoD maintains the veterans are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder.
A spokesman said: “The Medical Research Council’s 2003 report on Gulf veterans concluded that there is no evidence from UK or international research for a single syndrome related specifically to service in the Gulf.
“Any veteran in the UK who suffers from ill-health as a result of their service is compensated through the War Pensions and Armed Forces occupational pension scheme, regardless of the existence of Gulf War Syndrome as a discrete pathological entity
(anyone smell a rat here - or a weasel?)
Friday 21st November, UK 'pm' radio transcript:
(The Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War
Veterans' Illnesses, created by Congress in 2002,
presented its 450-page report to Secretary of
Veterans Affairs James Peake on the previous Monday& Prof Wessely was interviewed on the pm on the following Tuesday)
Professor Malcolm Hooper, who by the way is is Chief Scientific Advisor to the Gulf War Veterans Advisor, emailed after an interview with Simon Wessely.
"Simon Wessley is a psychiatrist who is trying to establish Gulf War Syndrome as a psychiatric condition and is advisor to the UK government and allied organisations. The report makes clear that to claim Gulf War Syndrome is a psychiatric illness is no longer sustainable.
I do hope your listeners are not taken in by the arrogant and casual dismissal of this massive piece of scientific and medical research by Simon Wessely. The veterans are clearly suffering from massive damage to the brain and nervous system."
He suggests the next stage is to provide useful treatments for this physical illness.
"If the government would provide the dedicated funding for these studies then at last they would be playing an honourable role in supporting the UK veterans and our American allies who've made such an outstanding research contribution."
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