This is a classic example of government stonewalling and a continuing tragedy for Gulf War veterans who were exposed to chemical and biological agents during their service in the Persian Gulf.
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Even the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology had published that Mycoplasma fermentans (incognitus) is a dangerous human infection and the Uniform Services University of the Health Sciences teaches its medical students who will later practice in the military that this microorganism can cause chronic disease and even death, but the Pentagon has continued to ignore and downplay the significance of these findings.
From the difficulties that we and others have experienced, one can only conclude that the Pentagon has not been forthright about the exposures of our Armed Forces to dangerous chemical and biological agents during and after the Gulf War, and that they have not been forthcoming about the illnesses these exposures have caused.
Recently, however, the Department of Defense agreed to work with us on this problem. It awarded us a contract to train Defense scientists and physicians to use the diagnostic techniques developed at the Institute for Molecular Medicine for identifying the chronic infections that cause, in part, GWI.
To address the exposures and the illnesses in military and civilian patients, we offer information and blood testing for chronic infections, such as those found associated with Gulf War Illness and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. Only through careful diagnosis and appropriate treatment can we hope to stop the chronic infectious diseases of the Gulf War and other illnesses from spreading in the general population.
Garth L. Nicolson, Ph.D., and Nancy L. Nicolson, Ph.D.