Replies

Here's an article I found, don't know if it's the one you were talking about. I'll try and find some more later.

U.S. Reports Disease Link to Gulf War
By Sheryl Gay Stolberg

After years of denying any link between illness and service in the Persian Gulf war, military officials said today that veterans of the conflict were nearly twice as likely as other soldiers to suffer the fatal neurological illness known as Lou Gehrig's disease.

The joint announcement by the Defense and Veterans Affairs Departments was based on the preliminary findings of a study of more than 2.5 million veterans. Officials said they would immediately offer disability and survivor benefits to affected patients and families.

Forty cases have been identified so far.

The hazards of the modern-day battlefield are more than bullet wounds and saber cuts. We have to be conscious of that and act accordingly.

Some scientists said the decision might be premature because the research had not been subjected to the analysis of peer review. An epidemiologic analysis, the study tracks patterns of disease, and does not prove that gulf war service was the cause of the disorder, formally called amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or A.L.S.

Veterans' groups, who have long argued that their members are afflicted by unexplained illnesses collectively called Gulf War syndrome, were ecstatic. So were patients' advocates, who said the study might yield important clues about the cause of the disease.

More than 100,000 American service members sent to the region in 1990 and 1991 have reported a range of maladies including fatigue, muscle pain, memory loss and sleep disorders. But studies have found no definitive links, although several have suggested that the ailments may stem from to chemical exposure, stress or prophylactic medicines given to soldiers.

A.L.S. is extremely rare, and the risk for soldiers is small. Of nearly 700,000 who fought in the yearlong gulf conflict, the study identified 40 with A.L.S. About half have died. In a comparison group of 1.8 million people who served in the military at the same time but were not in the region, 67 developed A.L.S.

The study found that among the nearly 700,000 soldiers sent to the gulf from August 1990 to July 1991, the risk of contracting A.L.S was 6.7 per million. Among the 1.8 million who were not deployed, the risk was 3.5 per million.

Though the overall risk was twice as high among those deployed, it was not consistent across the services. Air Force veterans were 2.7 times more likely to develop A.L.S. than those not deployed. Army soldiers faced twice the risk. But Navy and Marine Corps veterans did not show rates of disease that were statistically higher than those not deployed.

The epidemiologist who led the research, Dr. Ron Horner, said he and his colleagues drew on military records, appealed to veterans and patients' groups and made other efforts to identify veterans who had received diagnoses of A.L.S. in the 10 years since the war. He said his team had interviewed veterans with A.L.S. and their doctors and studied medical records and death certificates of those who had died.

Pentagon and veterans' officials said that the Durham study might be the largest of its kind and that they were confident of the results. "The risk is elevated, and the risk is statistically significant," said Dr. John R. Feussner, chief of research and development for the Veterans Affairs Department.

The announcement was a startling turnabout for the military, and it is quite likely to renew focus on gulf veterans' health problems.

The Pentagon assistant secretary for health affairs, Dr. William Winkenwerder, described the shift as a result of "an evolving thought process" about the risks of combat.

"The science," said Richard J. Santos, national commander of the American Legion, "is sound and the evidence is clear - U.S. troops were exposed to something in the Persian Gulf that accounts for an increased rate of A.L.S." We applaud the administration for deciding to award just compensation and benefits immediately."

A.L.S., which causes severe muscle wasting, is typically fatal in two to five years. Scientists have identified two genes connected with the A.L.S., Which came to public attention when Lou Gehrig of the Yankees contracted it. The inherited version accounts for 15 percent of all cases. The rest are classified as sporadic.

The $1.3 million study began in March 2000, and the next step, Dr. Feussner said, is for scientists to "look to see if there is any cluster or anything these soldiers have in common that might give us a clue as to what the cause is."

New York Times December 11, 2001

DEPARTMENT OF VETERANS AFFAIRS FINDS DESERT SHIELD, DESERT STORM VETS HAVE HIGHER RATE OF ALS

According to a news release on December 10, 2001 from the Department of Veterans Affairs, researchers conducting a large epidemiological study supported by both the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense have found preliminary evidence that veterans who served in Desert Shield-Desert Storm are nearly twice as likely as their non-deployed counterparts to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

This study, begun in March 2000, involved nearly 700,000 service members deployed to Southwest Asia, and 1.8 million who were not deployed to the Gulf during the period August 2, 1990 to July 31, 1991.

The study found 40 cases of ALS among deployed veterans. Although the researchers found the risk of ALS to be twice as high for deployed veterans, it is a rare disease and the number of affected individuals is small. Scientists would expect to find 33 cases in a similar-sized population over the same time period.

"These findings are of great concern and warrant further study," said Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi. "I intend to make certain that VA's medical resources and research capabilities are fully focused on this issue."

Here's a link to the Dept. of Veterans Affairs Study:

Study of ALS Among Gulf War Veterans (CSP#500)