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UK News

Wednesday 29 October 1997

MoD blundered over vaccines for Gulf troops

THE Government admitted yesterday that there was an extraordinary series of blunders by Ministry of Defence officials dealing with the health of British troops serving in the Gulf war.

Servicemen were injected with vaccines that had not been officially licensed and a Department of Health fax raising concerns about the combined effects from two vaccines taken together was sent to the MoD but not acted upon. The admissions were seized on by campaigners demanding compensation for veterans suffering from so-called Gulf war syndrome.

John Reid, the Armed Forces Minister, said the admissions, contained in two MoD internal reports, shed no scientific light on the existence of a single syndrome and he rejected calls for compensation.

He said the two reports had been published to indicate the Labour Government's willingness to be open about so-called Gulf war syndrome. The outgoing Tory Government was often criticised for secretiveness over the issue. Mr Reid said: "I am committed to doing all that I can to get rid of the distrust which has built up over the years between the Ministry of Defence and those who served their country in the Gulf."

Since coming to power, the Labour Government has launched a series of research initiatives and had high-profile meetings with campaigners. Of the 53,000 British personnel who served in the Gulf, more than 1,000 have reported illnesses, which some claim to have been connected with their service. The wide range of symptoms include nausea, headaches, blurred vision and depression.

The first report covered the details of what drugs were administered to troops to protect them from possible attack by Iraqi chemical and biological weapons.

Last October, the Government admitted that repeated statements that British troops were not exposed to organophosphates were wrong and it promised a rigorous examination into how the wrong statements came about.

The second report was into how Parliament was repeatedly misled over the extent to which British troops were exposed to harmful organophosphate pesticides. It said four civil servants were charged with disciplinary offences. Three were unproven and the fourth was reprimanded but is now appealing.

The first report contained the most serious revelations as it confirmed that several of the protective agents given to British soldiers to guard them from Iraqi weapons had no British licence. This applied to an agent to deal with nerve gas and vaccines for plague and whooping cough.

The absence of a licence does not show that the chemical was inherently unsafe but the admission is expected to be seized on by campaigners demanding damages for ill veterans.

Perhaps the most serious admission was that Department of Health advice about the possible harmful health effects of using the whooping cough and anthrax vaccines together was not acted upon even though it was faxed to MoD.

Mr Reid said the errors had been made in the chaos before the Gulf War when officials were working flat out. He also said the risks of using unlicensed vaccines had to be balanced against the risk from Iraqi weapons.

Hilary Meredith, from the Manchester solicitors' firm acting for more than 1,300 ill Gulf veterans, said Mr Reid's comments indicated "gross negligence, verging on recklessness" within the MoD.