§ Mr. SalmondTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence what(a) blood, (b) biopsy and (c) tissue samples taken from any Gulf War veterans have been sent to Porton Down for tests; and what the results of such tests were. [148210]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 1 February 2001]: A number of blood samples that were collected from the UK Service personnel during the Gulf conflict at various stages of the anti-biological warfare agent vaccination programme are currently stored at Chemical Biological Defence (CBD), Porton Down. These samples were analysed in 1991 with the aim of investigating the level of protection conferred by giving anthrax vaccine in combination with pertussis vaccine. The results of the study were given in a paper "Operation GRANBY: The effect of co-administration of the pertussis vaccine on specific antibody titre development to the anthrax vaccine in man", which was declassified and made publicly available on 28 October 1997.
There are 244 vials of sera held at CBD Porton Down. We know of another 38 vials that have been destroyed or lost. We have identified 188 donors of 245 of this total of 282 that we either have, or have been lost. In February and March 2000, all the donors who had been identified were contacted. The Ministry of Defence offered to send them the sample or to keep it at CBD Porton Down.
Apart from these blood samples, we have no records of other biological samples form Gulf veterans having been tested at CBD Porton Down. However, blood samples taken for the Gulf Veterans' Medical Assessment Programme (GVMAP) at St. Thomas' Hospital, London, are either tested on site or sent to laboratories that have particular expertise in specific tests. Up until December 310W 2000, 0.5 ml of blood taken from Gulf veterans was sent to the Centre for Applied Microbiological Research (CAMR) at Porton Down for sandfly fever testing. CAMR is a Department of Health Special Health Authority. It is completely separate from CBD Porton Down, which is a Ministry of Defence facility.