- LONDON (AFP) -- Gulf War
syndrome was probably caused by vaccines administered to soldiers before
their departure to the region, according to a medical report whose findings
are published in today's edition of The Times newspaper.
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- The confidential report by senior army specialist Lieutenant
Colonel Graham Howe, who examined a British soldier who suffered osteoporosis
and depression after the Gulf War, found that "secret" injections
he received before his expected deployment to the Gulf "most probably
led to the development of autoimmune-induced osteoporosis".
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- The theory has extra credibility because the soldier
in question, ex-Corporal Alex Izett, did not end up going to the Gulf.
His regiment, based in Germany, was not deployed there.
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- Last year Izett was granted a 50 per cent invalidity
pension by the British War Pensions Agency, The Times reports.
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- The defence ministry, while denying the vaccine claim,
has not challenged that award.
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- A copy of the medical report, dated September 22, 2001,
but never made public, was revealed to the paper by Izett himself.
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- Gulf War Syndrome is a term popularly applied to a vast
range of symptoms, from memory loss, chronic fatigue and dizziness to swollen
joints, depression and lack of concentration.
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- About 100,000 US troops, as well as thousands of British,
Canadian and French troops who took part in the 1990-1991 operation against
Iraq, have reported one or more of these problems.
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- But the British Government has refused to recognise the
existence of Gulf War syndrome.
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- Veterans' groups on both sides of the Atlantic are convinced
that a host of physical and psychological ailments are linked to military
service during the 1991 war.
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- About 45,000 British soldiers who served in the war were
given wide-ranging vaccinations to help them cope with the possible effects
of chemical or biological attack, which some doctors give as a reason for
the host of symptoms the soldiers have displayed.
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- Copyright 2003 News Limited.
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- http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,8370828%255E1702,00.html
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