Genetic Marker May Offer Clue to Gulf War Illness

A California scientist says he has discovered genetic material common to Persian Gulf War-period veterans that could provide a clue as to why so many became sick after serving in the 1991 war.

Microbiologist Dr. Howard Urnovitz, in a study being presented today to a conference of Gulf War veterans in Tampa, Fla., said the genetic marker could point to the existence of a virus. The virus, in turn, could make veterans exposed to chemical agents or other toxins more susceptible to illness, he said.

The report comes as the Pentagon is under increased pressure from Congress and veterans groups to examine the extent of U.S. troop exposure to chemical agents housed in a large Iraqi weapons arsenal blown up in March 1991.

The Pentagon denied until last June that evidence existed showing Americans were contaminated by Iraqi chemical or biological weapons. It now acknowledges that up to 15,000 troops could have been exposed to the highly toxic nerve agent sarin and to mustard gas at the Khamisiyah arsenal in southern Iraq.

In an interview, Urnovitz stressed Sunday that what he has discovered are genetic sequences that may be related to the enterovirus family, not the virus itself. The large enterovirus family ranges from viruses causing the common cold to those causing polio.

“All we’ve done is connect a big dot,” he said. “We haven’t solved the puzzle.”

But he said his study could be “terribly important” if it leads to discovery of a virus that could have put Gulf War veterans at substantially higher risk of illness when exposed to chemical agents or other pollutants common to a war environment.

Urnovitz, founder and chief science officer of Calypte Biomedical in Berkeley, said he found unique genetic bands in 29 of 36 veterans from California and Arkansas who were deployed to the Gulf and in all eight Arkansas veterans tested who didn’t serve in the Gulf. A random selection of 22 nonmilitary civilians found the band in only one.

The eight soldiers who were not deployed appear healthy, indicating that other factors related to service in the Gulf probably triggered an onset of illness.

Military personnel are constantly exposed to solvents and chemicals, said James Tuite III, a former congressional investigator into the health effects of the Gulf War illnesses.

Tuite said Urnovitz’s study “poses more questions than answers,” because it doesn’t pinpoint any infectious virus, but it is promising because “if we can find out what this genetic material is attached to, we can find out what the body is unable to defend itself against.”

Urnovitz said symptoms found among Gulf War veterans--fatigue, memory loss, aching joints and respiratory problems--were similar to those in “epidemic fatigue syndromes,” health problems that have afflicted large populations in industrial areas after viral infections.

A spokeswoman said Sunday the Pentagon would not comment on Urnovitz’s study until it is analyzed.