Article - Scientist: Gulf War illness may stay mystery

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Scientist: Gulf War illness may stay mystery

Those who served have more health problems

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/europe/10/19/health.gulf.reut/index.html

LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Veterans of the Gulf War suffer more

health problems than other members of the military but the causes of

the mysterious array of symptoms may never be known, a leading

British scientist said on Monday.

Men and women who served in the 1990-1991 war are 20 percent more

likely to suffer from headaches, fatigue and pain but do not have a

higher rate of cancer or heart disease.

" There is no shadow of a doubt that something has happened, something

has gone wrong, " Professor Simon Wessely, of King's College London,

told a news briefing.

But the head of the Gulf War research unit at the college said the

increase in ill health is unlikely to be a new disease or have a

single cause.

" There are huge areas that remain unclear and I am afraid I suspect

they will always remain unclear, " he added.

Multiple vaccinations, exposure to pesticides, smoke from oil-burning

fires, stress and organophosphates, chemicals that have been shown to

affect the human nervous system, have been cited as possible causes

of the illness.

Professor Mark Peakman, an immunologist at Guy's, King's & St '

School of Medicine in London, said the human immune system is more

than capable of dealing with multiple vaccinations given in a short

period of time.

Although vaccinations can cause local reactions, there is no evidence

so far linking them with the symptoms of Gulf War Syndrome.

Professor Ray of Nottingham University doubted that exposure to

dangerous chemicals in pesticides or insecticides was the culprit.

" It doesn't look like a pattern of chemical poisoning, " Ray said.

Wessely and his colleagues spoke to journalists ahead of the release

of an independent British inquiry into the illness and a day after a

draft U.S. report by a group of doctors and veterans said exposure to

neurotoxins explains the symptoms better than stress or psychiatric

illness.

The British scientists said they could not comment on the U.S. report

without seeing it.