§ Mr. FlynnTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what is his latest assessment of the possible causes of Gulf War syndrome. [36278]
§ Dr. Reid[pursuant to his reply, 6 April 1998, c. 48]: It has been brought to my notice that one sentence, relating to the further epidemiological study funded by the US Department of Defense, was ambiguous and open to misinterpretation. For convenience the full text of the answer, appropriately amended, is set out below.
Since returning from the Gulf War in 1991, some UK veterans have become ill. Many believe that this ill-health is unusual and directly related to their participation in that conflict. However, there is still no medical or scientific consensus on this subject and important research is still in progress.
The Government are funding two major epidemiological studies to investigate the health of Gulf veterans and their families. A further epidemiological study into UK Gulf veterans is being funded by the US Department of Defense. In addition, the Government are funding a programme of clinical tests on a group of randomly selected Gulf veterans and also a research programme to investigate the possible adverse health effects of the combination of vaccines and tablets which were given to British troops in the Gulf to protect them against the threat of biological and chemical warfare.
283WIt would be premature to speculate on the possible causes of Gulf veterans' illnesses before the results of these research programmes become available. We currently expect that preliminary results from some of these studies will appear during 1999.