From Soldiers to Veterans, Good Health to Bad

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Science 8 June 2012:

Vol. 336 no. 6086 pp. 1226-1227

DOI: 10.1126/science.336.6086.1226

NEWS FOCUS

EPIDEMIOLOGY

From Soldiers to Veterans, Good Health to Bad

Sam Kean

The U.S. military learned a hard lesson about veterans' health after

combat in Kuwait and Iraq in 1991. Sloppy and incomplete medical

records made it all but impossible to pin down the cause of Gulf War

syndrome, a mysterious set of immune and cognitive ailments that some

linked to chemical, vaccine, or pathogen exposure.

Congress and veterans' groups criticized the military for not taking

claims seriously and even branding some victims as malingerers. Before

the recent wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, military health officials

were determined to avoid these mistakes. They've spent the past decade

instituting programs—some more successful than others—to monitor

veterans' health and provide better, more timely care....

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/336/6086/1226.short