Long debate on gulf war illness may finally focus on treatment

The chairman of a presidential oversight panel suggests the long debate over the causes of gulf war illness is only delaying proper treatment for ailing veterans.

"The debate at some point ought to stop," said former Sen. Warren Rudman, a New Hampshire Republican. He promised his panel will have "very strong recommendations" when it wraps up its work next summer.The seven-member Special Oversight Board for Department of Defense Investigations of Gulf War Chemical and Biological Incidents heard Thursday from a parade of afflicted gulf veterans, several walking with canes, one in a wheelchair.

"We not only lost our health in the gulf war but we lost our future," said former Air Force Sgt. Robert Bergen of Altus, Okla. "For us, the gulf war continues."

Describing himself as "constantly sick, some days unable to get out of bed," and with $32,000 in unpaid medical bills, Bergen told the panel the government and insurance companies have rejected one claim after another. He cannot land a job, and now his wife and daughter are also sick, he said.

Officials acknowledged the illnesses are real but said they still lack good diagnoses - or evidence of causes - despite years of study.

One out of seven of the 700,000 American men and women who served in the Persian Gulf War "say they are sick" and want to know if their military service caused their illnesses, said Dee Morris, the Pentagon official in charge of investigating individual cases. "We still cannot tell them whether it did or not," she said

Despite the attention to chemical and biological agents, depleted uranium used as shell casings and other late 20th century technology, many reported symptoms - blurred vision, aches in joints, disorientation, constant fatigue - bear "striking similarities" to those suffered by returning U.S. veterans dating back to the Civil War, said Dr. Robert H. Roswell a physician with the Veterans Health Administration.

"Men and women who served came back and developed physical symptoms. While we can't pinpoint the cause of the suffering, the suffering is real," Roswell said.