Gulf War Vets Ill from Anthrax Vaccination, Medication

MANHATTAN, Kansas, May 6, 2002 (ENS) - The Gulf War illness that has troubled veterans for over a decade is due to a cocktail of medications and vaccinations, including a vaccination for anthrax, researchers at Kansas State University conclude in a report released today.

Pills of pyridostigmine bromide were given to Gulf War military personnel as a pretreatment for exposure to nerve agents. A vaccination for anthrax and several others were given at the same time, and many contained mercury as a preservative, said the research team, led by Walter Schumm, a Kansas State professor of family studies and human services.

Inaccurate shot records, little rest, stressful conditions in the field, and you have the recipe for a "significant association" between subsequent declines in subjective health experiences and Gulf War veterans, Shumm's team found.

Schumm noted that their research confirms results reported previously by British, Canadian, and other U.S. research teams with respect to vaccinations and pyridostigmine bromide consumption. He is working on a critique of a report recently released by the Institute of Medicine, clearing anthrax vaccine of any connection to health problems.

The extensive review of published literature in 2000 by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Committee on Health Effects Associated with Exposures During the Gulf War, is entitled "Gulf War and Health, Volume I."

Schumm said that it is possible that the anthrax vaccine as given today may be safe while the product as manufactured and administered during the Gulf War - in combination with all the other factors - was less than optimal with respect to the long term health of recipients.

On August 2, 1990, Iraqi armed forces invaded Kuwait; within five days, the United States began to deploy troops to Operation Desert Shield. The last troops to participate in the ground war returned home on June 13, 1991. In all, approximately 697,000 U.S. troops had been deployed to the Persian Gulf area during the conflict.

A large number of Gulf War veterans have had a range of unexplained illnesses including chronic fatigue, muscle and joint pain, loss of concentration, forgetfulness, headache, and rash. They were potentially exposed to a wide range of biological and chemical agents including sand, smoke from oil well fires, paints, solvents, insecticides, petroleum fuels and their combustion products, organophosphate nerve agents, pyridostigmine bromide, depleted uranium, anthrax and botulinum toxoid vaccinations, and infectious diseases, in addition to psychological and other physiological stress.

Ohio state officials were concerned over numerous reports of veterans in Ohio being ill with various problems and hired the team of researchers to take an independent look at the problem.

Schumm and his team studied a random selection of nearly 1,000 reserve component veterans from all branches of the military, who had either been living in Ohio in March 1996 or who had been in Ohio as of August 1990.

Among those veterans who reported excellent health before the war, 36 percent who said they received an anthrax vaccination reported poor to fair health in 1996 compared to 18 percent of those who did not report receiving the anthrax vaccination. In contrast, those who were not mobilized and did not receive an anthrax vaccination or pyridostigmine bromide pills reported much lower levels of poor to fair health in 1996 - less than five percent.

Schumm said researchers also found that many of the medical records or shot records of the veterans had been falsified or destroyed, making it virtually impossible to use clinical data to assess the impact of vaccinations or the pyridostigmine bromide pills.

"I get angry sometimes because you hear on the news that the Gulf War Syndrome symptoms are psychological; it's all in their heads," Schumm said. "I think our research suggests that there is something else going on. If it was just all just psychological I don't think we'd get these correlations with the exposures like we have. I think our findings are equivalent if not better than other studies done."

The Institute of Medicine committee recommended careful, longterm study of veterans exposed to depleted uranium and sarin; and recommended study of interactions between pyridostigmine bromide and insecticides and stress. Because few vaccination records were kept, the committee recommended long term study of those who were vaccinated for anthrax.

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