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Doctors and Gulf War veterans describe chronic illness, urge testing and antibiotic treatment
Summary
On a Missoula call-in program, Dr. Garth Nicholson and multiple Gulf War veterans described chronic, disabling symptoms they attribute to an infectious agent and urged blood testing and antibiotic therapy; callers and guests discussed testing costs, treatment logistics and concerns about transmission and the blood supply.
Dr. Garth Nicholson, director at the Institute for Molecular Medicine, told listeners in Missoula that many Gulf War veterans have a chronic infection that he and colleagues associate with mycoplasma and that they recommend immediate blood testing and, for positive cases, extended antibiotic therapy.
Nicholson framed the concern in clinical terms: “You need to be tested. You need to have your blood tested as soon as possible to to see if you're positive for these agents. And if you are positive, I think you need to to have extensive antibiotic therapy,” he said on the program.
The detail matters to listeners: host Joyce Riley said the lab Nicholson previously used at MD Anderson had stopped offering free testing and that Immunosciences Lab in California was charging about $150 for Gulf War veterans. Riley added the program…
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