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March 24 1996 Nerve damage found in Gulf troops

by Liz Lightfoot and Hugh McManners

NEW evidence suggests that some Gulf war veterans suffered serious nerve damage which could have been caused by their exposure to lethal chemicals during the conflict. The study, to be published this week by a leading consultant neurologist, is the first to identify a physical cause for the illness which has become known as Gulf war syndrome.

In an article in a British Medical Association (BMA) journal, Dr Goran Jamal, from the Southern general hospital in Glasgow, is expected to report that he found damage to the central nervous system of veterans that was not evident in civilians of similar age and pro file who were not involved in the conflict.

Hundreds of soldiers and airmen have complained of fatigue, headaches, memory loss and aching limbs after returning from the war five years ago. Their symptoms were originally dismissed as stress-related by the Ministry of Defence (MoD).

Two months ago, after a Sunday Times campaign highlighted the plight of sick veterans and their children born with unexplained defects, the MoD agreed to fund studies into the problem but the results are not expected for between three and five years.

Jamal, who started his tests in December 1994, used cameras and electrodes to conduct internal examinations of a group of sick war veterans, and compared the results with a control group of civilians. His findings of nerve damage in the veterans were subjected to scrutiny before his work was accepted for publication in the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Jamal, who is known for his work on the effects of organophosphates in sheep dips and on viral fatigue syndrome, is expected to claim the nerve damage among veterans is consistent with organophosphate poisoning. Organophosphates, from the same family of chemi cals as lethal nerve gas developed by the Nazis, were used in anti-nerve tablets which the troops took for up to three months to combat chemical or biological attack.

The men and women were also exposed to a cocktail of injections to protect them and may have been exposed to organophosphates in pesticides used to control desert insects. Chemical alarms led to unconfirmed reports the Iraqis had used chemical weapons or they had been accidentally released during the bombing.

In the United States studies have found that rats and chickens suffered nerve damage when given the same chemicals as the troops, but no research has yet been published as to their effect on the veterans.

John Parker, 28, a veteran from Newcastle upon Tyne, was one of those in the study funded by the Rowntree Foundation. He said he had been told by Jamal last March, after initial tests, that further research was to be done. "We heard last September that Jamal had found neurological damage in some of the people," said Parker, who now works as a heavy goods driver. When he went to the Gulf, Parker was a fit man of 23. He now suffers fatigue, severe aches, pains and breathlessness.

Jamal has also tested other veterans outside the two study groups. Mark Doyle, 33, from Buckley, in Clwyd, was referred to Jamal by his GP. Doyle said: "He did a lot of tests and his report showed chronic nerve damage. He suggested that my own doctor test for factors which might have pointed to a genetic reason for the nerve damage, but the tests were negative. Jamal said that if all these factors were normal then there had to be a toxic underlying cause."

Doyle, who was made redundant from the army after his re turn from the Gulf, started a clothing business but has had to stop work through ill-health. The MoD agreed a small war pension but refused to accept Jamal's diagnosis of neurological damage, which would have increased it. Doyle is now appealing.

"We were all sent out there as guinea pigs in a great big experiment, pumped full of chemicals and then left to fend for ourselves. I believe the MoD knows what caused the problems but doesn't want to admit it," said Doyle. Jamal, away on business, was unavailable for comment. The BMA refused to comment before the study's publication.