OBJECTIVES To determine how many veterans in a random sample of British veterans who served in the Gulf war believe they have "Gulf war syndrome," to examine factors associated with the presence of this belief, and to compare the health status of those who believe they have Gulf war syndrome with those who do not. DESIGN Questionnaire study asking British Gulf war veterans whether they believ...

AIMS To investigate whether Australian Gulf War veterans have a higher than expected prevalence of recent symptoms and medical conditions that were first diagnosed in the period following the 1991 Gulf War; and if so, whether these effects were associated with exposures and experiences that occurred in the Gulf War. METHODS Cross-sectional study of 1456 Australian Gulf War veterans and a comp...

This study analyzes how real-time Battle Damage Assessment (BDA) might contribute to airpower strategy and execution. It begins with a historical review of BDA during World War II, Vietnam, and the Persian Gulf War. Next, it examines the current BDA doctrine, capabilities, and procedures to illustrate contemporary strengths and shortcomings. The author then identifies potential remedies to cont...

BACKGROUND Potentially more than 100,000 US troops may have been exposed to the organophosphate chemical warfare agents sarin (GB) and cyclosarin (GF) when a munitions dump at Khamisiyah, Iraq was destroyed during the Gulf War (GW) in 1991. Although little is known about the long-term neurobehavioral or neurophysiological effects of low-dose exposure to GB/GF in humans, recent studies of GW vet...

PURPOSE To evaluate the health status of Gulf War veterans who reported receipt of anthrax vaccination and a small group of Gulf War veterans for whom documentation of anthrax vaccination exists. METHODS Among the 11,441 Gulf War veterans who completed a health survey, 4601 reported receiving the anthrax vaccine during the war; 2979 veterans reported not receiving it; 3861 were uncertain. Als...

It is unlikely that Gulf War veterans are suffering chronic effects from illnesses caused by chemical warfare nerve agent exposure. Extensive investigation and review by several expert panels have determined that no evidence exists that chemical warfare nerve agents were used during the Gulf War. At no time before, during, or after the war was there confirmation of symptoms among anyone, milita...

The internal contamination with depleted uranium (DU) isotopes was detected in British, Canadian, and United States Gulf War veterans as late as nine years after inhalational exposure to radioactive dust in the Persian Gulf War I. DU isotopes were also identified in a Canadian veteran's autopsy samples of lung, liver, kidney, and bone. In soil samples from Kosovo, hundreds of particles, mostly ...

Gulf War-related illnesses are mostly common ailments, but with incidence rates that exceed those expected in the population of Gulf War veterans. These illnesses may be the result of combinations of chemical and physiological stressors which may have caused acute cellular effects sufficient to initiate processes of autoimmunity to various organs, tissues or types of cells. Two main suspects in...

Service in the Persian Gulf in 1991 is associated with increased reporting of symptoms and distress in a proportion of those who served there. Yet despite clear evidence of an increase in symptom burden and a decrease in well being, exhaustive clinical and laboratory based scientific research has failed to document many reproducible biomedical abnormalities in this group. Likewise, there has be...