Gulf War Syndrome revisited

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Gulf War Syndrome revisited

_http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/07/gulf_war_syndrome_revisited36327/_

 

(http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/apr/07/gulf_war_syndrome_revisited36327/)

 

The federal government has at long last gotten around to acknowledging that

the mysterious ailment afflicting hundreds of thousands of veterans of the

first Gulf War most likely had a physical, not a mental, cause. The new

findings must come as a consolation to many veterans but will leave them asking

why

research into a cure has been so long delayed.

 

The findings are also a vindication for researchers who stubbornly rejected

the findings of a presidential panel that in 1998 determined that the bundle

of symptoms associated with Gulf War Syndrome (GWS) most likely represented a

reaction to stress. A number of researchers at the time pointed instead to a

combination of chemical exposures as the most likely cause.

 

Now a study conducted for the Department of Veterans Affairs Research

Advisory Council on Gulf War Veterans Illnesses agrees with those researchers

who

pointed to anti-nerve gas pills, exposure to pesticides and exposure to very

low doses of the nerve gas sarin inadvertently released into the atmosphere by

the destruction of Iraqi munitions just after the 1991 Gulf War. All

contained chemicals called acetylcholinesterase inhibitors. The study

" thoroughly,

conclusively shows that this class of chemicals actually are a cause of

illness in Gulf War veterans, " author Dr. Beatrice Golomb told the Los Angeles

Times. An associate professor of medicine at the University of California San

Diego, Dr. Golomb reviewed numerous studies, including ones of Japanese exposed

to a sarin attack in Tokyo and farm workers exposed to pesticides. She found

that victims exhibiting the physical symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome-type

poisoning tend to share an enzyme deficiency that makes them more susceptible

to

the chemicals.

 

The government's long-standing view that GWS was not a unique illness but

was caused by stress is described by epidemiologist Robert Haley of the

University of Texas as " a 10-year misadventure. " Dr. Haley, with funding from

Ross

Perot, was one of the first researchers to argue that GWS likely had a

chemical cause. In an interview with New Scientist magazine he said

questionnaires

used by the Pentagon and VA to survey veterans of the First Gulf War were

designed to screen for stress, not to identify physical illness. The

questionnaires failed to explore the severity of symptoms suffered by veterans,

he said.

 

Dr. Golomb's findings have been questioned by other medical experts, but

cannot be easily dismissed. She found that 18 of 21 epidemiological studies of

chronic health problems in Gulf War veterans showed a connection to at least

one kind of acetylcholinesterase inhibitor exposure.

 

Other researchers told the Los Angeles Times the syndrome's symptoms are so

varied that it's probably difficult to place the blame on a single cause.

 

Now that the finger of causality points to a chemical cause for at least

some of the 250,000 cases on record, the way should be clear for seeking a cure

and avoiding future exposure.