A Decade Later: Gulf War Illnesses Remain a Mystery
Subject A
Decade Later: Gulf War Illnesses Remain a Mystery
Press
Service wrote:
Linda
D. Kozaryn
American
Forces Press Service
WASHINGTON,
Aug. 8, 2000 -- After numerous medical studies and battlefield recreations,
defense officials have yet to learn why tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans
are sick.
Nearly
10 years after U.S. troops and coalition partners forced Saddam Hussein's
Iraqi invaders out of Kuwait, Bernard Rostker talked about DoD's quest for the
causes of Gulf War illnesses. The undersecretary of defense for personnel and
readiness and head of DoD's Gulf War illnesses office readily acknowledged his
team has not attained its ultimate goal.
"I
wish I could tell you that we knew what was making them sick," Rostker
said in an early August interview. "But, at this point, we don't have a
good idea of why some are sick and some are not sick."
Defense
officials take veterans' concerns about exposure to gas, biological and other
agents seriously, he stressed. "I know how frustrating it is for the
veterans. We're not blowing them off. We've tried to work very hard over the
last three years with them to be respectful of their concerns and do the best
job we can researching possible causes."
When
defense officials began seeking answers they hoped to identify patterns of
illness, he said. "We were hoping we would be able to possibly find
events that were consistent with concerns of the veterans and their health
status," Rostker said. "Unfortunately, there is not a clear pattern
of illness, and there's not a clear indication of why our service members are
ill."
Following
up on one sick veteran who had served in a company of 200, for example,
investigators found none of the others reporting same illness. "It's very
difficult to pin it to an environmental exposure when you have so many people
who shared environments who are not coming up with the same concerns," he
said.
Since
the Gulf War illnesses office opened in November 1996, Rostker and his team of
up to 180 people have conducted investigations, producing more than 30
reports. The office has run numerous medical studies and methodically tried to
recreate what happened in the gulf.
"With
the exception of the low-level release associated with the demolition at the
ammunition dump at Khamisiyah (Iraq), we don't see -- and neither does the
United Nations see -- a release of chemical weapons on the battlefield,"
Rostker said.
The
General Accounting Office, two presidential advisory commissions and a special
Senate investigative unit have reviewed the work. "We've had myriads of
hearings before the government oversight committee," he said. "No
one has been able to come to a definitive answer about why service members are
sick."
Rostker's
office is now wrapping up its efforts, closing out remaining Gulf War
investigations. Defense Secretary William S. Cohen has broadened the scope of
the Gulf War illnesses office and renamed it the Office of the Special
Assistant for Gulf War Illnesses, Medical Readiness and Military Deployments.
A
presidential special oversight board, led by former Sen. Warren G. Rudman,
supported DoD's proposal to give the office a broader venue to look at all
deployments, Rostker said. "We will be there as advocates for our service
members to make sure records are maintained so we can provide the data
necessary to do a better job in recreating what has happened in any future
deployment."
Rostker
stressed that the end of the Gulf War illness office does not mean the end of
DoD's concern for Gulf War veterans. "We're not giving up on Gulf War
veterans," he said. "We will investigate any case that looks like it
has a plausible contribution to the health concerns, but we're frankly out of
leads."
Medical
research is also continuing on birth defects and hospitalizations, as well as
individual research projects looking at the so-called cocktail effect, he
said. "We'll be carrying on research on pesticides well into the next
year."
The
new office will address veterans' concerns on any conflict. "The ultimate
compliment to the Gulf War veterans is that we don't want to repeat the poor
performance of the department again," Rostker said. "The best way to
avoid that is to have a small, but flexible, organization that can meet the
concerns not only of today's veterans, but of tomorrow's veterans."
As
in the past, the office will continue to provide a forum for service members
and veterans to discuss their deployment concerns via the Internet and
toll-free telephone numbers. Defense officials say one of the lessons learned
from the Gulf War is that veterans have a desire for information and an
expectation that their questions will be answered.
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