Gulf War’s Link to Disease Still Elusive

The Gulf War has been over for more than a decade, but questions about sick veterans linger. Nearly 199,000 veterans--or more than one in four--who served in the Persian Gulf from August 1990 to July 1991 have filed disability claims, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

“It’s stunning,” says Pat Eddington, author of “Gassed in the Gulf: The Inside Story of the Pentagon-CIA Cover-Up of Gulf War Syndrome.”

Tens of thousands of Gulf veterans have complained of illnesses including chronic muscle and joint pain, anxiety, fatigue and memory loss--collectively called Gulf War Syndrome.

But researchers have disagreed on the causes and even whether such a syndrome exists.

A study published in February in the British Medical Journal suggested that unexplained illnesses experienced by some Gulf vets are not unique and that they should be placed in a context of post-combat syndrome.

But other researchers and veterans groups have blamed nerve gas, pesticides and vaccines for some of the sicknesses.

The U.S. Department of Defense says there is a higher incidence of illness among Gulf veterans compared with military personnel who were not in the region at the same time.

But “putting a label to that or having an explanation--we’re not there yet,” says Austin Camacho, spokesman for the department’s deployment health support directorate.

About $174 million has been spent on nearly 200 studies, but none has found conclusive proof that any illnesses were directly caused by the war, said Jim Benson, a VA spokesman.

The VA recently announced that a preliminary study found Gulf veterans nearly twice as likely to develop ALS, or Lou Gehrig’s disease, as other military personnel. But the cause of the disease was not found.