With no concrete evidence yet that "Persian Gulf syndrome" exists, the Clinton administration plans to devote two medical clinics and up to $20 million next year to solving the puzzle.
The administration's budget proposal, to be unveiled next month, will request $15 million to $20 million for continued research into whether thousands of ailing gulf war veterans are victims of a single disease-causing agent. So far, the official answer is no.A study made public Tuesday of more than 1,000 ailing gulf war veterans points strongly away from the idea of a single cause of their illnesses. Most of those examined have known ailments, leaving researchers to focus on about 15 percent still suffering from unknown causes.
"What about the 15 percent where we're not sure?" said Dr. Stephen Joseph, assistant secretary of defense for health affairs. "I think it's unlikely, but it's theoretically possible, that we'll find a broad cluster there due to a single agent. I don't believe so and there's nothing in the data yet that would indicate that. But obviously we're going to keep looking."
The Pentagon is establishing two treatment centers, one at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, the other at the U.S. Air Force Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, to concentrate on the undiagnosed problems. The Department of Veterans Affairs, meanwhile, is conducting its own survey.
Research at these centers will focus on the 15 percent whose ailments could not be diagnosed. These problems included headache and memory loss, fatigue, sleep disorders, and intestinal and respiratory ailments.
Whether a single cause for gulf war ailments is found, Joseph said, the Pentagon is committed to treating all veterans who report medical problems. Both the Pentagon and the VA have been criticized by veterans groups for ignoring, or making light of, the health complaints of veterans.
Of the 697,000 troops who served in the 1990-91 Persian Gulf conflict, about 6 percent - 43,000 - have come forward to either the Defense Department or the VA and reported ailments they believe related to their service. The Pentagon study results from a complete examination of 1,019 of those.
In that group, the Pentagon found that 85 percent had ailments or diseases with known causes. These included circulatory and digestive problems, infections, specific injuries, psychological problems and blood disorders. About a quarter of those fully evaluated reported psychological conditions including depression, headaches, post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
A preliminary survey by the VA yielded similar results, with 80 percent of those examined diagnosed as either healthy or suffering from known ailments and 20 percent suffering ailments of unknown cause.