1:41pm (UK)
No Gulf War Syndrome, Insists MoD

By Tom Whitehead, PA News

The Government insisted today that so-called Gulf War syndrome does not exist despite fresh American evidence suggesting it does.

Defence officials said there were medical lessons to learn from the first Gulf War but refused to accept new research claiming soldiers suffered a specific syndrome.

In a report today, the Ministry of Defence identified health lessons arising from the 1990-91 conflict but maintained its decade-long stance of refusing to recognise an illness peculiar to the conflict.

The document comes a day after leaked details from a US report suggested a link between Gulf War illnesses and sarin, a nerve agent used by Saddam Hussein.

And it also comes before the imminent publication of the findings of an independent inquiry into Gulf War syndrome.

A defence official said: "Over a decade after deployment in the 1991 Gulf conflict, some Gulf veterans still suffer ill-health.

"However, there is no evidence from UK or international research for a single syndrome related specifically to service in the Gulf."

The official refused to comment on the US report, leaked in the New Scientist magazine, but said the MoD would be studying its conclusions "very carefully" when it is published next week.

She added: "I understand the report only reviews existing research and our view is that research to date shows there is insufficient evidence to support Gulf War syndrome."

Today's report, The 1990-1991 Gulf Conflict: Health and Personnel Related Lessons Identified, highlights a number of improvements on health issues for servicemen and women since the war.

They include avoiding multi-vaccinations in theatre and better information for troops on the controversial anthrax vaccine.