Gulf War were nearly twice as likely to develop Lou Gehrig's
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Article from Washington Post:
By Laura Meckler
Associated Press Writer
Monday, December 10, 2001; 2:20 PM
WASHINGTON
Soldiers who served in the Gulf War were nearly twice as likely to
develop Lou Gehrig's
disease than other military personnel, the government reported Monday,
the first time it has
acknowledged a link between service in the Gulf and a specific
disease.
The Veterans Administration said it would immediately offer disability
and survivor benefits to
veterans who served in the Persian Gulf during the conflict a decade
ago.
"The hazards of the modern day battlefield are more than bullet wounds
and saber cuts,"
said Anthony Principi, secretary of Veterans Affairs.
The results released Monday have not yet been reviewed by other
scientists or published in
an academic journal, but officials said they were releasing them now
to prevent further delay
in compensating victims of the progressive, fatal disease.
"They need help now and we will offer them that help," Principi said.
The study compared nearly 700,000 military personnel who served in the
Gulf War between
August 1990 and July 1991 with another 1.8 million personnel who were
not deployed to the
region. It found that those who were deployed were nearly twice as
likely to develop
amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neurological disorder often
called Lou Gehrig's disease.
Among Gulf War veterans, the rate of disease was 6.7 people per
million. Among other
military personnel, it was 3.5 per million.
The rate was not uniform among all personnel. Those who served in the
Air Force were 2.7
times as likely to contract the disease, and those in the Army were
twice as likely. Disease
rates among Marine and Navy veterans were not statistically different
from personnel not in
the Gulf.
Researchers do not know why Gulf War veterans were more likely to
contract the disease,
the cause of which is unknown.
Principi said the VA would continue research on the connection between
other illnesses and
the Gulf War and increase research into ALS to try and find a cause,
treatment and cure.
Advocates for veterans have long maintained that Gulf veterans were
more likely to develop
ALS but earlier, smaller studies failed to prove a connection.
The same will be proven true for other illnesses, predicted Steve
Robinson, executive
director of the National Gulf War Resource Center.
"We've been proven right, and we're going to be proven right on a lot
of other things as
well," he said. "This whole issue is about to blow wide open."
© 2001 The Associated Press