US study finds link between disease and Gulf War service

Americans who served in the Gulf War were nearly twice as likely to develop Lou Gehrig’s disease as other military personnel, the US government reported today.

It was the first time officials acknowledged a scientific link between service in the Gulf and a specific disease.

The US Veterans Administration said it would immediately offer disability and survivor benefits to veterans who served in the Persian Gulf during the conflict a decade ago and now have the fatal neurological disorder.

‘‘The hazards of the modern day battlefield are more than bullet wounds and sabre cuts,’’ said Anthony Principi, secretary of Veterans Affairs.

The research, which included nearly 2.5 million military personnel, is one of the largest epidemiological studies ever conducted and offers the most conclusive evidence to date linking Gulf War veterans to any disease. Still, researchers don’t know why these veterans were more likely to get sick.

Veterans have long maintained that a variety of illnesses are associated with service in the Gulf, but scientific evidence has been scant and the Pentagon has resisted making the connection.

Last year, the National Academy of Sciences was unable to link any of these complaints to a specific cause associated with military service.

‘‘I think there were people who decided, for whatever reason, this was something they didn’t want to admit or cop to,’’ said Tom Donnelly, whose son Michael, an Air Force fighter pilot in the Gulf War, is now paralysed with Lou Gehrig’s disease.

The results released today have not yet been reviewed by other scientists or published in an academic journal, and officials cautioned that they are preliminary. They said they were releasing them now to prevent further delay in compensating victims of the progressive disease.

‘‘They need help now and we will offer them that help,’’ Principi said.

The study compared nearly 700,000 military personnel who served in the Gulf War between August 1990 and July 1991 with another 1.8 million personnel who were not deployed to the region.

It found that those who were deployed were nearly twice as likely to develop amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a fatal neurological disorder often called Lou Gehrig’s disease.

Researchers worked with health associations, VA hospitals and veterans organisations and examined death certificates to find a total of 40 Gulf veterans with ALS. About half of them have already died.

A total of 67 cases were found among other military personnel.

Among Gulf War veterans, the rate of disease was 6.7 people per million. Among other military personnel, it was 3.5 per million.