COVID-19 posing increased risk to Gulf War veterans suffering mysterious illness
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (CBS12) — Coronavirus is posing a unique danger to a group of veterans suffering invisible wounds of war, some of whom may not even know why they’re sick.
Scientists estimate as many as 1 out of every 3 men and women who returned from Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm suffer from what’s known as Gulf War Illness, a sometimes loosely tied collection of symptoms that doctors believe stem from the numerous toxins veterans ingested during combat in the Persian Gulf.
Symptoms can include fatigue, headaches, joint pain, indigestion, insomnia, dizziness, respiratory disorders, and memory problems, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
“They truly have a tremendous amount of suffering going on,” said Dr. Nancy Klimas, with Nova Southeastern University’s Institute for Neuro-Immune Medicine and the Miami VA Hospital. “These are veterans. They have a drill sergeant in the back of their heads saying put through your pain. Push through your pain.”
Klimas has been studying Gulf War Illness since the final days of Operation Desert Storm, when she began to observe symptoms in veterans returning from the conflict.
She believes the chronic multi-symptom illness is the result of a “perfect storm” of toxins that veterans ingested during the conflict. The toxins include pesticides, nerve gas, burning oil wells, burning human waste and trash, and even potential contaminants in soldiers’ Humvees and uniforms.
READ: LATEST CORONAVIRUS HEADLINES
Those toxins, Klimas believes, made their way to veterans’ brains.
“Because the brain is grand central for organizing everything in the body, it causes a host of these complicated symptoms,” she added.
Klimas added that the host of symptoms veterans experience as a result of the Gulf War Illness makes catching coronavirus extremely serious because, among other things, of the potential respiratory complications veterans with the illness often have.
“We’re really having cautioning our Gulf War vets, don’t get sick to begin,” she said. “Please. Please. Please.”
“I would think that any sort of minimal exposure to corona could take me out,” added U.S. Army Sgt First Class (Ret.) Jimmy Arocho, a veteran of Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, who suffers from Gulf War Illness.
Arocho was deployed with the 101st Airborne and served seven months in the Persian Gulf. When he returned, he felt something was off but didn’t experience serious symptoms until chronic fatigue set in nearly a decade later.
“I would jump in my car to go to work, stop at a read light just chilling, and boom horns are blinking. I just faded out I just nodded out,” he told CBS12 News.
Today, Arocho participates with Klimas in research studies. Her institute uses supercomputing technology to analyze data, discovering ways to better treat Gulf War Illness symptoms and potentially find a cure.
“Our moonshot is considering the thought we might be able to cure the illness,” Klimas said.
READ: CBS12 NEWS I-TEAM REPORTS
Both Klimas and Arocho encourage any Gulf War veterans suffering from potential symptoms to come forward and seek treatment from the VA. Both believe that because the illness is misunderstood, there could be thousands of veterans suffering from this service-related illness who don’t even know they’re sick.
“You’ve’ been told you’re nuts by so many people you begin to believe it,” Klimas said, adding that decades ago doctors treated the unrelated symptoms of Gulf War Illness like a psychological disorder.
Now, she says, the illness has seen funding and awareness improve. But, there’s still a long way to go in research.
“We’re trying to get our arms around what Gulf War Illness is. And to do it right we have to allow the researchers to follow the science,” Arocho added.
