Troop vaccinations come under fire

By CHARLES ARTHUR in London

Veterans' organisations fear a "Gulf War II Syndrome" among troops returning from the Iraq conflict, after evidence that four soldiers have fallen ill with debilitating symptoms like those suffered by hundreds since the 1991 conflict.

Support organisations are also demanding that British Defence Secretary Geoff Hoon explains why he told the House of Commons in January that soldiers would not be given multiple vaccinations in a short time because of "lessons learned" from the previous Gulf conflict - but then allowed the armed forces to do exactly that.

The new syndrome has emerged after two of the men vaccinated before the Iraq conflict became so ill that they were unable to fly to the Gulf to join their units. One had had five vaccinations, including two against anthrax, in a single day.

Two other soldiers who did serve in Iraq have now returned to Germany but have fallen ill, says the National Gulf Veterans and Families Association, which has 4500 members who say they are suffering from "Gulf War Syndrome".

The group blames the original syndrome on the powerful cocktail of vaccinations against diseases and germ agents that troops in the 1991 war were given in a short period before transferring to the Gulf for their illnesses. The symptoms include skin and nervous system disorders, hair loss, headaches, muscular pain and sleep disturbances.

Now it says that promises made by Hoon have been broken.

On January 7 Hoon said that "a key lesson learned from the [first] Gulf conflict was the importance of ensuring that members of the armed forces should not undergo in a short time a series of different vaccinations. That was identified as a particular cause of difficulty, and the lesson has been learned and acted upon, so that there is now a process whereby individual members do not receive a number of vaccinations in a short time frame."

However, the evidence of the latest reports suggests that that advice was not followed, said Plumridge. "We blame the Ministry of Defence again for giving vaccinations in multiple doses rather than singly."

On Saturday, the Medical Research Council published a review of existing research recommending "a full review of the differing vaccinations schedules used in participating countries" for the first Gulf war. By matching these to the symptoms experienced by those who fell ill, "this may shed new light on veterans' health generally," said the MRC.

But the review refused to recognise the existence of Gulf War Syndrome as a separate entity, and said that "there remains little evidence that vaccinations are the cause of ill health experienced by the veterans".

- INDEPENDENT