Gulf War Syndrome vets march on London!

[SilverbladeTE]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12599479

Gulf War Veterans mark 20 years with protest march
Gulf veterans groups say the coalition government has a chance to 'make amends'. Continue reading the main story
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Gulf War veterans have staged a protest in Westminster to call for greater help with their medical problems.

Campaigners say 1,000 British veterans have died because of Gulf War Syndrome and they want improved testing, treatment and compensation.

The government says there is no evidence of a specific illness caused by the war.

The march is timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the end of Operation Desert Storm.

Many British veterans have fallen ill since returning from the Gulf in 1991, but there are conflicting views over whether Gulf War Syndrome exists as a distinct condition.

'An umbrella term'

Reported symptoms range from sleep disturbances and headaches, to stomach and respiratory disorders and psychological problems.

The Ministry of Defence accepts that soldiers became ill, but argues Gulf War Syndrome is an umbrella term for many different symptoms.

The march organiser Kerry Fuller, of the First Gulf War (90/91) Veterans Protest Group, suffered chronic fatigue and a stroke which he blames on the war.

He said: "We believe successive governments have engaged with the Ministry of Defence in denial and word-play to negate proper testing, treatment and compensation for thousands who are blatantly ill."

"This relatively new coalition government has a golden opportunity to make amends and be seen to do the right thing."

On 28 February 1991, President George Bush Sr declared a ceasefire, ending a six-week war.

Allied forces had driven Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait, which Iraq invaded in August 1990 in a dispute about oil.

funny how the US admits exposure to nerve gas and pesticides (which are much same as nerve gas) and an anti-nerve gas agent troops were FORCED to take, are likeliest culprits and admitted this and offered help...but we in UK of course cannot see the wood for the trees thanks to you know who and you know what!

Gulf War Syndrome
ME/CFS
Camelford water poisoning
Sheep dip poisoning
Aerotoxic Syndrome
etc etc

look how long it took for our government to admit culpability and aid the coal miners and absestos workers, and servicemen deliberately poisoned with nerve gas without consent or information!
the asbestos workers case is spectacularly shabby, with the damn lawyers gobbling up iirc, 2/3rds of the money in the case, iirc!

"Rip of Britain", indeed.
pattern of evil and malice afore thought, there, folks

 

[Daisymay]

Thanks for posting Silverblade, I didn't see that on the news. It is truly appalling the way GW vets have been treated, evil indeed.

 

[cigana]

Thanks for the post Silverblade. I'd like to know how many people marched and where they marched, hopefully we'll get more info in the next few days. I think it could be a good idea for us to join forces with them in protest.

 

[eric_s]

I don't know if it's a good idea to join forces with them, in case what we have is not the same thing, because we probably want to get away from the "vage, umbrella term illness" stereotype. So i think what we need is to be able to show as clearly as possible what it is that we have and how it's different from other illnesses (unless it really is related). That's why i liked the recent CSF study so much.

This does not mean i don't feel solidarity for people with GWI. If i could help them i would.

I think we might have get used to the idea of marching a lot in the future. Maybe better sitting or laying down in our case, but you know what i mean. If they don't give us what we want, which has not happened in the past, i don't see another way.

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Dasiymay,
shows a pattern of abuse, by the psychs/government, in denying folk help in similar manners over decades
if they'll do that to veterans who fought for their country...then there's not much the SOBS in power won't stoop to, and thus, more ammo for us to show to the public this is a widespread, co-ordinated, criminal abuse of the genuinely disabled that has to stop.

Cigana,
my pleasure

Eric_s,
the similarities, heck probabilities fair percentage have ME as opposed to whatever GWS is, or even BOTH conditiosn simultaneously, suggests co-operation
plus
they TOO have been screwed over terribly by the psychs,
and fact the veterans get better respect than us, and their huge death toll is salutory warning to the public that GWS and thus ME are serious, even deadly, illnesses.
Hm?

 

[pictureofhealth]

Thank God some of them have got the energy to march, although I'm assuming that many will be in wheelchairs, with family and friends pushing and supporting them along and will pay the price in terms of recuperation afterwards, and that many also will be far too ill to leave home and attend.

This is something PWME would also have done long ago - if we had been able to stand up and walk, let alone march.

Very good luck to them. I shall be scouring the papers for coverage after the event and I'm sure that this time around they will get it!

 

[Enid]

Hope all up to it - sadly one of the only ways to fight the ignorance here.

 

[Ian]

[video=google;-475226309740846580]http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-475226309740846580#[/video]

 

[SilverbladeTE]

Ian
that's another pile of evil sh*t our least favourite Human Being had a hand in denying, meh.

 

[Chris]

Nancy Klimas has a paper on cytokine arousal after exercise showing a pattern in GWS similar to that in CFS, only worse! So there seem to be some similarities, despite obvious differences. Will post if I can find it. Chris

 

[USAFANG67]

I think the truth about Gulf War Vets lie in inoculation that were given to the vets whom were deployed either before or after deployment. As to why and which one came down with GWI is dependent on if you got the experimental vaccine(which was a crap shoot) and or how your immune system reacted to the volley of inoculations. Each one of us immune system is as varied as our personality. No two are alike.
To complicate matters even worse were the oil well fires, false positive chemical alarms etc. etc.. Somewhere in this mess lies the truth.

 

[USAFANG67]

Is this the paper you are referring to:

Immunological response in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) following a graded exercise test to exhaustion
Authors: J. LaManca, S. Sisto, J. Ottenweller, A. Peckerman, S. Cook, T. Denny, W. Gause and B.H. Natelson. NJ CFS Research Center, New Jersey Medical School, and VA NJ Health Care System, East Orange, NJ.

Objective: Data have indicated that CFS may involve abnormal immune system functioning. Exercise can be an useful tool in stimulating an immune response. This study was conducted to evaluate the immunological response of CFS patients to an exhaustive bout of exercise.

Methods: The two groups, which were matched for age, sex, and socioeconomic background, consisted of 19 CFS patients meeting the 1988 CDC criteria and 14 non-exercising (i.e. sedentary) controls respectively. All were females in the luteal phase of the menstrual cycle. Venipuncture was performed pre-, 4 minutes post-, 1 hour post-, and 24 hours post-exercise. The graded exercise test (GXT) consisted of walking on a treadmill with the work load increasing every 3 minutes to voluntary exhaustion. Expired gas was analyzed during the GXT. Peripheral blood cells were labeled with the following monoclonal antibody combinations: CD3/CD8, CD3/CD4, CD3/CDl9, and CD3/CD (16&56). The cytokines: IFN-gamma, IL-2, IL-4, IL-10, IL-12, and TNF-alpha were assayed utilizing a quantitative RT/PCR assay. White blood cells (WBC) and all subset concentrations were adjusted for plasma volume shifts.

Results: During the GXT no significant differences in VO2peak (28.6 1.7 vs 30.8 1.2 ml:kg-1min -1), HRpeak(175 4 vs 183 4 bpm) and RER (1.08 .02 vs 1.13 .02) were seen when comparing CFS to CON. The number of WBC, CD3+CD8+, CD3+CD4+, T-Cells, B-Cells, Natural Killer Cells, and IFN-gamma all were significantly changed across time (all comparisons, p < .0l). No significant group differences were seen for any of the immune variables. Also the changes across time were similar for both groups with the exception of IL-2, where a significant group-by-time interaction was seen (p < .03). Only one of the CFS patients had elevated blood lymphocyte levels 24 hours after the GXT.

Conclusion: The immune response of patients with CFS to a single bout of exhaustive exercise is not significantly different when compared to a group of sedentary healthy controls.

(This work was supported by NIH Center grant AI-32247)

 

[Nielk]

Many years ago when I was already sick but, no diagnosis, I saw a very well put together documentary about Gulf war syndrome on TV. While I was watching it, it dawned upon me that I could be one of them. that's how similar my symptoms were to theirs.


There must be some connection. How else can you explain the similarities in symptoms with no real explanation?

Why do we want to separate ourselves from them? There is such a variable of symptoms within the ME/CFS community anyway. Maybe if we would band together, we could be more powerful in our quest for an answer.

 

[insearchof]

Many years ago when I was already sick but, no diagnosis, I saw a very well put together documentary about Gulf war syndrome on TV. While I was watching it, it dawned upon me that I could be one of them. that's how similar my symptoms were to theirs..

Nielk

Prof Malcom Hooper UK has studied the similarities and has written about them. For the most part, according to Hooper they are very similar, with a few noted exceptions re symptoms/severity.

 

[Nielk]

Nielk

Prof Malcom Hooper UK has studied the similarities and has written about them. For the most part, according to Hooper they are very similar, with a few noted exceptions re symptoms/severity.

If that's really true maybe we can pool our resources under an umbrella illness and get more attention.

 

[insearchof]

The illness is similar to ME but not the same. I would be happy to walk in support od GWS vets, but think it unwise to merge under an umbrella illness, which would be like merging with MS. It would create unnecessary confusion.