WASHINGTON - Some troops returning from Iraq are reporting "ill-defined" illnesses, a Department of Defense official said at a Senate committee hearing focusing on the health problems of veterans of the first Gulf War.

But unlike veterans of the 1991 Gulf War, these veterans are getting medical treatment, said Dr. Michael Kilpatrick, the Pentagon's deputy director for Force Health Protection and Readiness.

Kilpatrick was testifying at a hearing on the progress of research on the mysterious illnesses that have afflicted veterans of the Gulf War for nearly two decades.

"We are finding that about 15 to 20 percent of people out there" are reporting "ill-defined illness," Kilpatrick told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.

Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are guaranteed Veterans Affairs health care and treatment for two years after they return and leave the military.

Sixteen years since the Gulf War ended, veterans of that war continue to be told by physicians Gulf War illness does not exist or that their illnesses are psychological, witnesses said.

A 5-year-old VA pamphlet providing guidance to doctors on Gulf War illnesses still emphasizes stress as a cause, said Jim Binns, chairman of the VA Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illnessses.

Binns said 175,000, or one in four of those who served in the Gulf War, suffer some form of multisymptom illnesses. He said that $300 million has been spent on Gulf War illnesses studies, but only two were treatment studies.

A report by a previous Senate Veterans Affairs Committee concluded the most important thing the VA and Defense Department could do for vets was provide timely, accessible, appropriate treatment for Gulf War veterans, Binns said. The report was written in 1998.

Julie Mock, an ailing Gulf War veteran and president of Veterans of Modern Warfare, told the panel she experienced debilitating headaches, respiratory illnesses and skin that grew hot with red rashes. In 2003, she was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.

Her children also have severe medical problems. One son has a connective tissue disease, learning disabilities, bipolar disorder and Tourette's Syndrome.

"We believe it is vital to the health of our most recent veterans that you continue to study the long-term health of Persian Gulf War veterans and our children," Mock said.

Kilpatrick told the panel more needs to be done to educate physicians and the Defense Department needs to be more transparent about Gulf War illness studies.

Binns said the Defense Department historically has funded two-thirds of Gulf War illness research, about $30 million annually. Also, the Defense Department operated a pilot program that gives priority to studies of existing treatments for Gulf War illnesses. But he said the Defense Department did not request funding for the program in its 2008 budget.

Kilpatrick said the Defense Department has renamed Gulf War research as force deployment research.

In written testimony, Kilpatrick said more than 80 percent of Gulf War veterans have well-known health problems and receive conventional diagnoses and treatment. He said veterans who have health problems are definitely ill but have to be treated individually.

"Assumptions based on particpation in the 1991 Gulf War cannot be made about the health of a veteran," he stated.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., said she and others would try to get funding for the Defense Department program, but it may not come this budget cycle. But progress on research on Gulf War illnesses has come from earmarks, she added.

 

On the Net: Senate Veterans Affairs Committee: http://veterans.senate.gov/public/