VA asks for more review and recommendations of Gulf War Illness report
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has sent the October 2008 report from the VA Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses to the National Academy of Sciences' Institute of Medicine (IOM) for review and recommendations.
The October report from the advisory committee identified potential causes for -- and asserted that research supports the existence of -- a multi-symptom condition resulting from service in the 1990 - 1991 Gulf War, which the committee identified as Gulf War Illness (GWI).
The congressionally mandated committee presented its 450-page report last month to Secretary of Veterans Affairs James Peake. It's the first time the full range of scientific research and government investigation on Gulf War illness has been compiled.
"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," the report states.
Gulf War illness is typically characterized by a combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headaches, unexplained fatigue and widespread pain, and also might include chronic digestive problems, respiratory symptoms and skin rashes, according to a release from the Boston University School of Public Health, which helped conduct the study.
The report states that about a quarter of the 697,000 veterans of the first Gulf War suffer from the illness, which is caused by exposure to toxic chemicals, including pesticides and a drug administered to protect troops against nerve gas. No effective treatments have yet been found.
In Alabama, 3,700 Army and Air National Guard members deployed to the Persian Gulf in 1990 and 1991, according to data from the Alabama National Guard. Information on the number of area veterans suffering from Gulf War illness was not readily available Wednesday.
The report recommends that more research be done on the illness and possible treatments, but no benefit or policy changes are currently being made.
The committee's review included hundreds of studies of Gulf War veterans, extensive research in other human populations, studies on toxic exposures in animal models, and government investigations related to events and exposures in the Gulf War.
Because VA has traditionally and by law relied upon IOM for independent and credible reviews of the science behind these particular veterans'
health issues, Peake has asked IOM to review the advisory committee's report before VA officially responds to the report's conclusions.
--Jenn Rowell
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I will repeat what I have stated before, sending anything to the IOM for further review is a watse of time, look at DR Page's previous studies from the MUFA unit and he's never seen a health problem from exposures, they ignore known studies if it shows expensive outcomes as he did when he was doing the March 2003 Sarin Report for the Gulf War veterans, how do I know this?
I am one of the 7120 veterans used in the control group, the human experimentation subjects of Edgewood Arsenal's cold war program that involved 254 substances, Sarin was just one of these compounds, Mustard agents, BZ, LSD, PCP, etc you name it and they played with it on the soldiers.
There is a report the the National Institute of Health published in Jan 1994 showing many medical problems from exposure to Sarin, cardiac and pulmonary being the main problems.
They also ignored the long term study published by SIPRI in 1975 written by DR Karl Heinz Lohs of Germany who treated Wermacht soldiers from 1946 to 1974 that had worked in the Third Reichs chemical muntions areas the symptoms are the same as the Gulf War symptoms coincidence? I doubt it.
Thursday, December 4, 2008
VA asks for more review and recommendations of Gulf War Illness report
