“GULF WAR SYNDROME”

The Ministry of Defence accepts that some veterans of the 1990/1991 Gulf Conflict have become ill. Many people believe this ill health is unusual and directly related to service in the 1990/1991 Gulf Conflict. Sometimes they refer to this phenomenon as “Gulf War Syndrome”.

There is now good scientific evidence that UK 1990/1991 Gulf veterans report more ill-health than other comparable groups. The pattern of this ill-health, however, is not unique to 1990/1991 Gulf veterans [1]. The same symptoms are seen in UK military personnel who did not deploy to the Gulf in 1990/1991. The difference is that veterans of the 1990/1991 Gulf Conflict report having more of the symptoms and are suffering more severely from them. Some Gulf veterans have recognised medical conditions, but a large number of non-specific, multi-system, medically unexplained symptoms have also been reported.

Specific diseases, disorders, abnormal conditions and medical syndromes all have common features such as a set of physical signs or symptoms that distinguish them from other medical conditions. But 1990/1991 Gulf veterans do not present with a distinct and identifiable pattern of symptoms or signs. The consensus of the international scientific and medical community is therefore that there is insufficient evidence to enable this ill-health to be characterised as a unique illness or syndrome. The Medical Research Council addressed this in a review of research published on 22 May 2003 and came to the same conclusion. The Ministry of Defence’s approach must be guided by these findings from the scientific and medical community, and we do not therefore recognise “Gulf War Syndrome” as a medical condition.

However, it is important to note that this does not stop 1990/1991 Gulf veterans who have left the armed forces and are ill, either ex-Regulars or ex-Reserves, from claiming a War Pension. War Pensions are awarded not for a list of disorders but for any disablement which can be accepted as caused or made worse by Service, whatever that disablement is called. The question of whether or not there is such a thing as “Gulf War Syndrome” is not therefore relevant from the point of view of War pensions. As at 31 March 2005, 2885 veterans of the 1990/1991 Gulf Conflict were in receipt of a war disablement pension. This figure includes awards relating to both Gulf related and non-Gulf related conditions.

In addition the Armed Forces Pension Scheme and the Reserve Forces (Attributable Benefits Etc) regulations provide enhanced injury and death benefits to regular and reservist Service personnel whose injuries, illnesses or death, was were, on the balance of probabilities, attributable to, or aggravated by, their Gulf service.

The Ministry of Defence is committed to carrying out further research on 1990/1991 Gulf veterans’ illnesses. Please click here for more information on research.

[1] Health of UK servicemen who served in Persian Gulf War. Unwin et al, published in The Lancet Jan 1999, Vol 353, No 9148. Is there a Gulf War syndrome? Ismail et al, published in The Lancet Jan 1999, Vol 353, No 9148. Health and exposures of United Kingdom Gulf War veterans – Part 1: The pattern and extent of ill health. Cherry et al, published in Occupational and environmental medicine, May 2001, Vol 58, No5.

Last Updated: 5 Sep 05