[CPEO-MEF] Doctor Opposes Gulf War Syndrome 'Mythology'

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

Doctor Opposes Gulf War Syndrome 'Mythology'
Mon Oct 7,10:47 AM ET

By Peter Graff

LONDON (Reuters) - As the world prepares for a possible second Gulf War
( news - web sites), there is unfinished business from the first: Gulf
War syndrome ( news - web sites), the media's name for a collection of
symptoms that disabled thousands of otherwise healthy veterans.

More than a decade after allies fought to drive Iraqi troops from
Kuwait, thousands of veterans are still suffering symptoms that range
from exhaustion to loss of motor function.

It makes a good news story, but Dr. Harry Lee says it is time to drop
it. The reports are hurting his patients.

"It's been a tragedy. It's been a mythology that's been propounded by
the press and television," said Lee, who heads a team that worked with
3,000 British Gulf veterans for the Defense Ministry.

"The more people cling to a group of symptoms--'I served in the Gulf so
I have Gulf War Syndrome'--then they won't get better," he told Reuters.

Neither the United States nor Britain accepts that a direct link has
been established between the war and the syndrome, even though the
countries have spent more than $300 million researching possible causes.

Veterans' groups say they suspect the use of pesticides in the
battlefield, burning oil tanks, bombs made from depleted uranium and new
vaccines of causing health problems.

This article can be viewed at:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=571&ncid=751&e=6&u=/nm/20021007/hl_nm/gulfwar_syndrome_dc

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