Gulf War Syndrome

GWS (Gulf War Syndrome), also know as Desert Storm Illness (DSI), was an immune system disorder that was found prevalent in many of the returning soldiers from Operation Desert Storm in the early 1990s. Of the more than 700,000 men and women who served in the war, around 210,000 of them have reported symptoms consistent with this illness.

The ailments of this disease included many of the following identifiable and linkable symptoms.

• Fatigue
• Headache
• Memory problems
• Muscle/joint pain
• Diarrhea
• Dyspepsia/indigestion
• Skin problems
• Shortness of breath
• Birth Defects
• Auto-immune disorders
• Restlessness
• Insomnia

There have been many theories and theses tested over the past fifteen years trying to pin-point just what was the specific culprit. The United States tried to determine what may have caused this illness and was able to sum it down to a few possibilities including: Parasitical infection, post combustion from spent nuclear or radioactive munitions, all forms of known chemical weapons and their residue, and finally, a side-effect from the widely administered Anthrax vaccination.

After many years of research, and the surfacing of critical documents which retained information necessary to solve this mystery, many experts have concluded that the primary cause of GWS was from vaccinating our soldiers with the un-tested Anthrax vaccine.

This was brought to the attention to congress in the late 90s when they found out the military had failed to inform them of 20,000 soldiers who all had been diagnosed with GWS shortly after receiving the vaccine. A judge ordered the U.S. to stop administering the vaccine in 2004, deeming it unsafe. However, in 2005 the FDA released a statement saying the re-doctored new version of this vaccine, which is currently being administered to our troops, was safe for human beings to use.