ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, October 7, 1996 TAG: 9610070169
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press WASHINGTON
THE RESEARCH SUGGESTS that a virus in combination with exposure to chemical agents causes the sicknesses.
A California scientist says he has discovered genetic material common to Persian Gulf War-era veterans that could provide a clue as to why so many became sick after serving in the 1991 war.
Microbiologist Dr. Howard Urnovitz, in a study being presented today to a conference of Gulf War veterans in Tampa, Fla., said the genetic marker could point to the existence of a virus. The virus, in turn, could make veterans exposed to chemical agents or other toxins more susceptible to illness, he said.
The report came as the Pentagon is under increased pressure from Congress and veterans' groups to examine the extent of U.S. troop exposure to chemical agents housed in a large Iraqi weapons arsenal blown up in March 1991.
The Pentagon denied until June that evidence existed showing Americans were contaminated by Iraqi chemical or biological weapons. It now acknowledges that up to 15,000 could have been exposed to the highly toxic nerve agent sarin and to mustard gas at the Khamiseyah arsenal in southern Iraq.
Urnovitz stressed Sunday that what he has discovered are genetic sequences that may be related to the enterovirus family but not the virus itself. The large enterovirus family ranges from viruses causing the common cold to those causing polio.
``All we've done is connect a big dot,'' he said. ``We haven't solved the puzzle.''
But he said his study could be ``terribly important'' if it leads to discovery of a virus that could have put Gulf War veterans at substantially higher risk of illness when exposed to chemical agents or other pollutants common to a war environment.
Urnovitz, founder and chief science officer of Calypte Biomedical in Berkley, said he found unique genetic bands in 29 of 36 veterans from California and Arkansas who were deployed to the Gulf and in all eight Arkansas veterans tested who didn't serve in the Gulf. A random selection of 22 nonmilitary civilians found the band in only one.
The eight soldiers who were not deployed appear healthy, indicating that other factors related to service in the Gulf triggered an onset of illness.
Military personnel are constantly exposed to solvents and chemicals, said James Tuite III, a former congressional investigator into the health effects of the Gulf War illnesses.
Tuite said Urnovitz's study ``poses more questions than answers,'' as it doesn't pinpoint any infectious virus, but it is promising because ``if we can find out what this genetic material is attached to, we can find out what the body is unable to defend itself against.''
Tuite is presenting evidence at the Tampa conference today that he says refutes Pentagon and CIA conclusions that particles from chemical agent facilities in central Iraq bombed by allied planes could not have been blown southward by winds and exposed Americans stationed in Saudi Arabia.
Urnovitz said symptoms found among Gulf War veterans - fatigue, memory loss, aching joints and respiratory problems - were similar to those in ``epidemic fatigue syndromes,'' health problems that have afflicted large populations in industrial areas after viral infections.
He said epidemic fatigue syndrome has been detected at least a dozen times in the past 60 years where many people were exposed to pollutants.
The Pentagon says it has been unable to find any single cause, or syndrome, to explain the illnesses that have hit tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans.
The Pentagon announced last month it is devoting $5 million to study the effects of low-level chemical agent exposure but says that to date empirical evidence does not exist proving that low-level exposure causes chronic illnesses. Close exposure to sarin causes death.
LENGTH: Medium: 73 linesby CNB