The Persian Gulf Syndrome

1
The Persian Gulf Syndrome

• The battle continues

2
Operation Desert Storm

• Began on the 17 January 1991
• On 24 February 1991, four days ground war
• Thousands of Iraqi soldiers were killed (Basra
  Death Road )
• Less than 300 deaths in the allied forces
• (The Pentagon feared tens of thousands)

3

• Even before they returned home, the first Gulf
  veterans had become ill. In ensuing years, many
  more in some European countries and the USA
  complaining of a series of medical problems.

4

• Of the 697,000 U.S. troops who served during
  Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm, more
  than 100,000 have registered with the department
  of Veterans AFFairs or Department of Defense,
  saying they have health concerns.

5

• While most of these veterans have been diagnosed
  with a variety of conditions, more than 15000 or
  about 20 of those examined, have undiagnosed
  symptoms.

6

• Fatigue
• Muscle and joint pains
• Skin rashes
• Memory loss loss of concentration
• Headaches
• Diarrhea
• Sleep disturbances depression

7
Robert Haley-1997 JAMA

• An epidemiologist at the University of Texas
  Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas
• Factor analysis on 249 veterans to determine
  whether a specific cluster of symptoms existed
  that would warrant the term syndrome.

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• Syndrome (1) (impaired recognition) is marked
  attention, memory and reasoning.
• Syndrome (2) (Confusion-ataxia)
  disorientation, balance disturbances, and vertigo
• Syndrome (3) (arthromyoneuropathy) includes
  muscle aches and weakness

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• Haley showed on a series of neurological tests,
  indicating that they had generalized injury to
  the nervous system.
• Haleys group has gone on to produce many more
  papers-in 1999, for instance, they claimed to
  have found evidence of brain damage (MR
  spectroscopy).

10
Risk Factors

• Depleted uranium
• Sarin (nerve agents) Khamisiyah The current
  state of knowledge is that, there is insufficient
  evidence to rule out that short periods of
  sublethal doses of sarin may cause neurological
  damage.
• Mustard (blister agents)

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Risk Factors

• Pyridostigmine bromide pre-treatment for nerve
  gas
• Inhibiting cholinesterase at the neuromuscular
  junction
• Some individuals are genetically more susceptible
  and/or it may have acted synergistically with
  pesticides.
• Animal models stress and increase in BBB

12
Risk Factors

• DEET premethrin
• The delayed effects of chronic low level
  exposure, perhaps in conjunction with
  pyridostigmine bromide, are not known.

13
Risk Factors

• Biological weapons, namely anthrax, plague, and
  botulinum.
• Some 100000 troops were vaccinated against
  anthrax and another against botulism toxoid.
• Multiple vaccination may have damaged the immune
  system.

14
Risk Factors

• Over 600 oil wells
• Did not find excess levels of toxic gases such as
  hydrogen sulfide sulfur dioxide, but there was
  an increase in the level of fine particulate
  matter.

15

• Yet 10 years later, after the US alone has spent
  155 million on research, scientists are still at
  a loss to explain what caused the PERSIAN GULF
  SYNDROME.

16
Pentagon

• Next time, officials can better determine who was
  exposed to what.
• Developing system to keep an electronic record of
  every soldiers health from enlistment until
  death.