Gulf War syndrome vindicated

last updated 8 January 2015

London

Army vaccinations given before the 1991 Gulf War caused a British soldier’s bone disease, a British tribunal ruled. The ruling was the first major victory for war veterans who have blamed their military service for the series of health problems—including nausea, chronic fatigue, wasting muscles, and depression—known unscientifically as Gulf War syndrome. The soldier, Alex Izett, was never actually deployed in the Gulf, but he did receive the same injections as soldiers who were, and the British court reviewing his pension benefits found that “the concoction of drugs caused osteoporosis.” Thousands of soldiers in the U.K. and the U.S. have said they have Gulf War syndrome, although dozens of studies by both countries’ governments have failed to find a causal link between war service and illness. “I just hope that this opens the floodgates for more cases to come forward,” Izett said.