§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Gulf War veterans(a) are suffering and (b) have suffered from renal cancers. [50538]
§ Dr. MoonieComprehensive data provided by the Office for National Statistics' NHS central register (NHSCR) on cancer registrations in England and Wales are only currently available up to 31 December 1998 and currently up to 31 December 2001 for registrations in Scotland. These data show that up to 31 December 1998 for England and Wales and up to 31 December 2001 for Scotland that seven Gulf veterans have been diagnosed as suffering from renal cancer or malignant neoplasm of the kidney as classified by International Classification of Disease (ICD) 9th Revision code 189.0 and ICD 10th Revision code C64. The Ministry of Defence's Gulf veterans' medical assessment programme had seen a further two veterans with renal cancer as at 13 May 2002. One veteran has, sadly, died. The current health status of the remaining eight veterans is not known to the MOD. The MOD is conducting an analysis of the incidence of all cancers in Gulf veterans with the aim of making the findings available later this year.
§ Ms WalleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence how many Gulf War veterans(a) are suffering and (b) have suffered from scarring to the (i) kidneys and (ii) liver. [50539]
§ Dr. MoonieThe total number of Gulf veterans who have kidney and or liver scarring could only be established if all Gulf veterans were to undergo medical examination. It is the practice of the Ministry of Defence to examine only those veterans who wish to be examined and are referred by their GP or service medical officer to the Ministry of Defence's Gulf veterans' medical assessment programme (GVMAP). All patients seen at the GVMAP receive abdominal ultrasound examination which can detect kidney and liver scarring. In the absence of other indicators of kidney or liver damage, such scarring is of no clinical significance. Neither is described either in standard medical textbooks or classified by the World Health Organisation's International Classification of Diseases 9th and 10th Revisions. Kidney and liver scarring is therefore an incidental finding, does not cause any suffering and in itself is of no clinical significance in respect of suggestion of a link between ill health and the Gulf conflict. For these reasons, no centralised records are kept of such scarring. However, in a randomly selected anonymised sample of 1,000 patients examined at the GVMAP, one patient had a kidney scar and none had liver scarring. The GVMAP physicians do record kidney and livery damage where the damage is of clinical significance.