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Gulf War Illness

Answer

Since the Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment programme was established in 1993, it has medically assessed 3,278 1990–91 Gulf veterans. Of those seen, 2,521 were Army, 299 Navy and 458 RAF, of whom 117,17 and 27 respectively had neurological disorders.No unusual diseases or pattern of diseases were found. Of 161 cases of neurological disorder, the most common was migraine (43), followed by epilepsy (28) (22 idiopathic, 6 post traumatic) and multiple sclerosis (19). Of the 161 only one was medically assessed as a result of service in the Gulf. The remaining 71 veterans suffered a miscellaneous group of disorders, some of a genetic nature, others extant before deployment to the Gulf and others developing many years after return from the Gulf, none of which were assessed by Medical Assessment programme physicians to be caused by either deployment to the Gulf or medical countermeasures used during that campaign.In relation to auto-immune illnesses, there have been three cases of systemic lupus erythematosus autoimmune disease, and three cases of common variable immunodeficiency. Two of the latter were asymptomatic and discovered by chance. None of these six cases was assessed as being due to service in the 1990–91 Gulf conflict. However, since 2002, routine investigations for immune diseases have not been routinely undertaken unless clinically indicated.Information is not held centrally on the individual units that patients of the Medical Assessment programme served with in theatre, or the number of war pensions in payment to patients that have attended, and could be obtained only at disproportionate cost.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

46872; 442 c703W;442 c703W

Session

2005-06

Subjects

Armed forces Diseases Iraq Iraq-Kuwait conflict Medical examinations War pensions Neurology Iraq conflict Veterans

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk