A panel has concluded that so-called Gulf War syndrome is caused by pills taken by American troops to neutralize the effects of nerve gas.
The soldiers ingested the medication, known as pyridostigmine bromide, in addition to insecticides. Together they comprised a class of medications known as acetylcholinesterase inhibitors.
Gulf War syndrome is reported to affect over 200,000 soldiers, with symptoms including “combination of memory and concentration problems, persistent headache, unexplained fatigue, and widespread pain, and can also include chronic digestive difficulties, respiratory symptoms, and skin rashes.”
The Veterans Health Administration, already severely cash-strapped in terms of providing mental health services, better be funded with the appropriate resources to find an effective treatment. In fact, the panel suggested $60 million annually to start.
There is no question the condition will comprise a bulk of cases that physicians outside the VA system will have no experience dealing with.
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The linked story says:”Exposures to neurotoxic compounds including insecticides — which thousands of soldiers took as protection against nerve gas — are the most likely causative candidates, added the report. “
That’s just weird–no one was taking insecticides to protect themselves from nerve gas, they were taking the pyridostigmine bromide as a prophylaxis in case of nerve gas, and using the insecticide to protect against insects, specifically sand flies.
That’s clear in the earlier story, Chemical Exposures in Gulf War Caused Veterans’ Illness.
But see the original article here, and also see, and a reply to it here, indicating its flaws, and more generally the work of Michael Fumento here.
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