
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, May 9, 1993                   TAG: 9305090126
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

PANEL STUDIES AILMENTS OF GULF WAR VETERANS

Experts examining reports that hundreds of Persian Gulf War veterans are suffering from mysterious ailments offered a few speculative answers but raised many more questions.

"We may never learn the truth," O.J. Brooks, deputy director of Disabled American Veterans and a member of the panel, said Friday. "But everything humanly possible must be done" to find answers.

Gulf veterans have reported unexplained skin rashes, chronic fatigue, headaches, sore joints, hair loss, irritability, insomnia, depression and diarrhea.

Some panel members questioned whether the symptoms were caused by environmental factors in the Gulf, including smoke from oil well fires in Kuwait. The panelists, noting that only a small percentage of troops and family members complained of serious unexplained problems, said some could be hypersensitive to chemicals.

Some want to investigate whether symptoms are related to post-traumatic stress disorder.

Gen. Ronald Blanck, commander of Walter Reed Army Medical Center, said he suspects the causes can be found in the Gulf region. "War these days is not particularly environmentally friendly," he said. "I don't know that it ever was." - Associated Press

by CNB