Vaccine 'booster' linked to Gulf war illness

By Paul Brown

Guardian Weekly

Thursday August 2, 2001

Gulf war syndrome may have been caused by an illegal vaccine "booster" given to protect soldiers against biological weapons, according to new tests. Scientists in the United States found that symptoms of the illness were the same for service personnel who received the injections, whether or not they served in the Gulf.

The common factor for the 275,000 British and US veterans who are ill appears to be a substance called squalene, which was allegedly used in injections to add to a vaccine's potency. Such an action would have been illegal. Squalene is not licensed because of potential side effects.

Pam Asa and her team at the Tulane Medical School in Louisiana tested more than 300 former US military personnel who were given vaccinations before they went to the Gulf: 95% tested positive for squalene antibodies. In addition veterans in both countries were tested, including 20 who were given preparatory injections but did not go to the war. All 20 tested positive for squalene antibodies.

Dr Asa said that in her view the fact that even non-deployed veterans were testing positive for squalene provided conclusive evidence that vaccinations were a "major cause" of the condition. It ruled out the theory that environmental factors caused the syndrome. "I believe that those people who were given vaccinations in the US and the UK were given something they should not have been, probably in the anthrax vaccine," she said.

The evidence could be devastating for the Ministry of Defence, which is being sued for damages by 1,900 British veterans. Squalene is a naturally occurring substance in the human body, but injecting it is illegal, and research on rats and mice has found that it causes auto-immune disease. As a result of those tests, squalene in the form of a vaccine is unlicensed for human or veterinary use.

The ministry has refused to disclose what was in the vaccines. Lewis Moonie, a British junior minister responsible for veterans, said: "To the best of my knowledge no squalene was given to British forces at the time of the Gulf war."

Defence scientists are carrying out experiments on animals to see what effects the injections could have. The results will not be known until 2003.

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