Gulf War Illness Study Started by VA, National Institutes of Health
The NIH and the VA jointly announced a five-year study to understand Gulf War Illness, in hopes of crafting effective treatments. Photo: Eric Lee for The Wall Street Journal By Ben Kesling April 17, 2023 4:26 pm ET The federal government on Monday launched a large-scale study of Gulf War Illness, a mysterious and chronic disease that affects hundreds of thousands of troops who served in the Persian Gulf during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. The Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health jointly announced the five-year study to understand the disease amid other efforts by the VA to better diagnose, treat and compensate veterans who have diseases related to exposure to toxins during wartime service. Gulf War Illness affects as many as 250,000 of
The NIH and the VA jointly announced a five-year study to understand Gulf War Illness, in hopes of crafting effective treatments.
Photo: Eric Lee for The Wall Street Journal
By
The federal government on Monday launched a large-scale study of Gulf War Illness, a mysterious and chronic disease that affects hundreds of thousands of troops who served in the Persian Gulf during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm.
The Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Institutes of Health jointly announced the five-year study to understand the disease amid other efforts by the VA to better diagnose, treat and compensate veterans who have diseases related to exposure to toxins during wartime service.
Gulf War Illness affects as many as 250,000 of the 700,000 troops who served in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf conflict, or about one-third of those veterans, according to the VA. The chronic disease affects multiple systems in the body and includes symptoms such as fatigue, headache, memory and cognitive difficulties, joint and muscle pain, poor sleep, and problems with gastrointestinal and respiratory function, according to the VA.
“Effective treatments for Gulf War Illness have remained elusive, forcing healthcare providers to mostly focus on easing patient symptoms,” said Dr. Rachel Ramoni, the VA’s chief research-and-development officer, in a statement.
Researchers will screen veterans who served during operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm at multiple VA centers and refer patients to the NIH for a two-week investigation at the institute’s Bethesda, Md., clinical center. While the veterans are there, researchers will work to figure out how Gulf War Illness presents itself in measurable ways in each person. By doing so they hope to understand the ways it affects the nervous and immune systems and to begin crafting effective treatments.
Last year, Congress passed the PACT Act, a comprehensive benefits package for troops who were exposed to toxins while on deployment or in uniform, to address longstanding concerns and complaints, some of which span decades. Much of the focus of the legislation is on troops who were exposed to burn pits during the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The PACT Act also helped secure recognition for troops of other generations, including those who were exposed to Agent Orange defoliant, radioactive debris and other toxins that can take years or even decades to show their deleterious effects on veterans’ health. That long timeline can prevent troops from making timely claims, or of even being able to document that they were exposed to such toxins. That, in turn, leaves them with no benefits or treatment for those specific ailments.
Veterans who want to participate in the new study on Gulf War Illness can contact the VA at [email protected].
Write to Ben Kesling at [email protected]
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