On the effects of the Gulf War

1996/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Osasuna

We still know little about what happened in the Gulf War and, of course, we are not talking about political clashes. Among U.S. soldiers, the disease known as Gulf syndrome has been frequently cited in this regard, despite repeated rejection by health institutions of the term disease.

Two months ago the Federation of Experimental Biology Associations of the USA met in Washington, where the clearest information that has been offered so far on the origin of the syndrome was offered: on the one hand it recognizes the existence of a pathological picture with all symptoms and, on the other, its origin refers to the mixture of medication that was administered to soldiers and insecticide against insects.

The most common symptoms of the syndrome are memory loss, headaches, sleep disturbances, ataxia, feeling of fatigue without skin races or breathing problems. According to experts, the key to the syndrome is in the pills taken to fight the nerve gas that rivals would supposedly use.

These pills are manufactured by mixing different chemicals and soldiers took them massively for fear of gas used by Iraqis. The organism cannot assimilate all these substances and many of them accumulated. Gulf syndrome is due to the onset of reaction with chemicals from insecticides.