According to an April 2010 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) sponsored study conducted by the Institute of Medicine (IOM), part of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, 250,000 of the 696,842 U.S. servicemen and women in the 1991<unk> <unk>  continue to suffer from chronic multi-symptom illness, which the IOM now refers to as<unk> <unk>  illness. The IOM found that it continued to affect these veterans nearly 20 years after the<unk> . According to the IOM, "It is clear that a significant portion of the soldiers deployed to the<unk> <unk>  have experienced troubling constellations of symptoms that are difficult to categorize," said committee chair Stephen L. Hauser, professor and chair, department of neurology, University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). "Unfortunately, symptoms that cannot be easily quantified are sometimes incorrectly dismissed as insignificant and receive inadequate attention and funding by the medical and scientific establishment. Veterans who continue to suffer from these symptoms deserve the very best that modern science and medicine can offer to speed the development of effective treatments, cures, and—we hope—prevention. Our report suggests a path forward to accomplish this goal, and we believe that through a concerted national effort and rigorous scientific input, answers can be found." Questions still exist regarding why certain veterans showed, and still show, medically unexplained symptoms while others did not, why symptoms are diverse in some and specific in others, and why combat exposure is not consistently linked to having or not having symptoms. The lack of data on veterans' pre-deployment and immediate post-deployment health status and lack of measurement and monitoring of the various substances to which veterans may have been exposed make it difficult — and in many cases impossible — to reconstruct what happened to service members during their deployments nearly 20 years after the fact, the committee noted. The report called for a substantial commitment to improving identification and treatment of multisymptom illness in<unk> <unk>  veterans focussing on continued monitoring of<unk> <unk>  veterans, improved medical care, examination of genetic differences between symptomatic and asymptomatic groups and studies of environment-gene interactions. A variety of signs and symptoms have been associated with GWI: +Excess prevalence of general symptoms * Symptom U.S. UK Australia Denmark Fatigue 23% 23% 10% 16% Headache 17% 18% 7% 13% Memory problems 32% 28% 12% 23% Muscle/joint pain 18% 17% 5% 2% (* This table applies only to coalition forces involved in combat. +Excess prevalence of recognized medical conditions Condition U.S. UK Canada Australia Skin conditions 21% 4% Arthritis/joint problems 10% 2% Gastro-intestinal (GI) problems 1% Respiratory problem 2% 1% Chronic fatigue syndrome 3% 0% Post-traumatic stress disorder 9% 3% Chronic multi-symptom illness 26% Birth defects have been suggested as a consequence of<unk> <unk>  deployment. However, a 2006 review of several studies of international coalition veterans' children found no strong or consistent evidence of an increase in birth defects, finding a modest increase in birth defects that was within the range of the general population, in addition to being unable to exclude recall bias as an explanation for the results. A 2008 report stated that "it is difficult to draw firm conclusions related to birth defects and pregnancy outcomes in<unk> <unk>  veterans", observing that while there have been "significant, but modest, excess rates of birth defects in children of<unk> <unk>  veterans", the "overall rates are still within the normal range found in the general population". The same report called for more research on the issue. Comorbid illnesses<unk> <unk>  veterans have been identified to have an increased risk of multiple sclerosis. A 2017 study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found that veterans possibly exposed to chemical<unk> fare agents at Khamisiyah experienced different patterns of brain cancer mortality risk compared to the other groups, with veterans possibly exposed having a higher risk of brain cancer in the time period immediately following the<unk> <unk> . Iraqi veterans Although an understudied group, opposing Iraqi veterans of the Iraqi Army in the<unk> <unk>  also experienced acute and chronic symptoms associated with<unk> . A 2011 study in the U.S Army Medical Department Journal reported Iraqi veterans of the<unk> <unk>  had a higher prevalence of somatic disorders as compared to Iraqi civilians, with risk greater in troops stationed in Kuwait. In comparison to Allied troops, health symptoms were similar amongst Iraqi veterans: +Risk of health symptoms Symptom Odds ratios (95% CI) - Zone 1 vs Zone 3 Headaches 3.65 (2.51–5.31) Respiratory disorder 4.09 (2.60–6.43) Genitourinary disorder 4.06 (2.65–6.21) Musculoskeletal disorder 4.33 (2.96–6.33) Chronic fatigue 126.3 (29.9–532.8) Skin disorders 1.89 (1.24–2.87) Miscellaneous disorders 4.43 (2.44–8.05) ::* Zone 1 = In Kuwait, Zone 3 = 360 km from Kuwait.
Gulf War syndrome
SAHA syndrome
Toxic shock syndrome
Primrose syndrome
Proteus syndrome
Systemic inflammatory response syndrome
SUNCT syndrome
Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome