FOR RELEASE: July 30, 2001

Evans Commends Efforts to Identify Treatments for Sick Gulf Veterans 

Washington, DC -- "I hope that the recommendations contained in the Institute of Medicine’s report ‘Gulf War Veterans: Treating Symptoms and Syndromes’ will improve the health and well being of thousands of Gulf War veterans who are suffering from difficult-to-diagnose, ill-defined, or unexplained illnesses characterized by a variety of symptoms," Congressman Lane Evans said today.  Evans’ comment came in response to a report released this week by the Committee on Identifying Effective Treatments for Gulf War Veterans’ Health Problems.  The report was produced as a requirement of legislation sponsored by Evans in 1998.  Evans is the Ranking Democratic Member on the House Veterans Affairs Committee.  

Evans was encouraged that the report emphasized treatment for Gulf War veterans’ symptoms rather than trying to apply “labels” to the syndromes of symptoms many veterans report.   

“There have been many other efforts to find the causes of veterans’ illnesses and to try to identify which constellations of symptoms may be properly identified as ‘syndromes’ unique to the veterans’ population,” said Evans.  “The purpose of this study was to find helpful treatments today for veterans who returned home from the Gulf sick.”   

Because of the multiplicity of potential exposures experienced by these veterans, Evans has long proposed that health care and research efforts focus on the illnesses and symptoms for which Gulf War veterans seem to be particularly at risk.  Unlike in the case of some Vietnam veterans’ illnesses with which exposure to dioxin (a contaminant contained in some herbicides) has been linked, a “cause and effect” model has not been as successful in identifying specific health outcomes for Gulf War veterans.  

"Gulf War veterans experience very real illnesses and many Gulf War veterans may have been exposed to a wide array of toxic agents depending on their locations at particular times. They deserve to be given the best possible treatment to alleviate their symptoms.  This IOM report places the emphasis where it belongs, on improving treatment options for these veterans.”

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