Friday, June 18, 2010

Congressional Hearing on Gulf War Illness Issues Scheduled for July

Written by Anthony Hardie, 91outcomes.com Publisher/Editor

(91outcomes.com) – The U.S. House subcommittee on veterans affairs oversight and investigations has announced its third and final hearing of a three-part series on Gulf War illness issues. 

The hearing, entitled, “Gulf War Illness: The Future for Dissatisfied Veterans,” will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 in the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee hearing room on Capitol Hill .

A recent Institute of Medicine report found that 250,000 veterans of the 1991 Gulf War – more than one-third – continue to suffer from what the IOM termed chronic multisymptom illness (CMI), more commonly known as Gulf War Syndrome or Gulf War Illness. 

The IOM also found that rates of PTSD and other psychiatric conditions were much lower than CMI rates in Gulf War veterans, and emphatically stated that the multisymptom illness prevalent in Gulf War veterans could not be attributed to a psychiatric cause, providing further vindication for the hundreds of thousands of Gulf War veterans who have been suffering from debilitating physical conditions for nearly 20 years.

Last August, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Secretary Eric Shinseki launched a comprehensive internal task force on Gulf War veterans’ illness issues, chaired by VA Chief of Staff John Gingrich, himself a Gulf War veteran. 

Earlier this year, VA’s internal Task Force not only released its initial draft report to the public  -- unusual for an internal government task force -- but also allowed and requested public comments.  

The transparency measures, on an issue that has drawn frustration and hostility for years from ill Gulf War veterans, were well received by the Gulf War veteran community.  The measures, from a federal agency previously known more for stonewalling and denial on Gulf War illness issues, renewed hope in many quarters that real change aimed at genuinely providing new improvements in the health and lives of Gulf War veterans is finally on its way.

A final copy of the VA task force’s report is expected just prior to the upcoming Congressional hearing.

More information on the hearing can be found here:  http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/hearing.aspx?NewsID=601.

2 comments:

Jagmedic said...

In June 2010 what is VA Gulf War Steering Committee? What purpose was this group created? Is this part of the VA-RAC-GWI ?

91outcomes said...

The VA publicly announced the creating of the Gulf War Steering Committee (GWSC), as it is now known, in early March.

Here's the 91outcomes.com article about it, which should answer your questions.

http://www.91outcomes.com/2010/03/new-structure-for-va-research-outlined.html