Gulf War Syndrome: Evidence of Biological Agent Use_

     Weaving its way ever-so-slowly through Congress is a letter signed by more than 90 congressman and senators convinced that the Pentagon has been covering up the use (either by accident or on purpose) of biological agents during Operation Desert Storm. According to experts, including Dr. Garth Nicolson of the Institute for Molecular Medicine and former chairman of the Tumor Biology Laboratory at the University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, many cases of Gulf War Illness can be traced directly to infection by Mycoplasma incognitus, a microbe commonly used to produce biological agents. The difference between the normal strains of Mycoplasma and that causing GWS is that the latter has 40 percent of the HIV protein coat incorporated into it, making it more virulent and suggesting that it had to have been man-made. After testing hundreds of veterans with a gene tracking technique that he and his wife, a cell biologist, developed, Dr. Nicolson has concluded that many veterans suffering from GWS were exposed to synthetic biological agents.
     Symptoms of GWS vary. But when 622 Gulf War Veterans were tested, the physical symptoms exhibited in the order of highest frequency were: aching joints, chronic fatigue, memory loss, headaches, skin rashes, muscle spasms, diarrhea, breathing problems, chest pain, dizziness, and nausea. One of the reasons for the sometimes debilitating joint pain, according to Captain Joyce Reilly, a former air-evacuation nurse during Desert Storm who also witnessed first hand the illnesses that Gulf War Vets began to come down with, is the fact that the mycoplasma tends to bury itself deep within an area of the body such as a joint's synovial cavity. If it settles in the heart, she adds, the heart begins to enlarge.
A recent study has found a possible link between GWS and antibodies produced by "squalene," a cholesterol-building molecule found in humans, vegetable oils, shark-liver oil, and various health supplements. Squalene is also used in producing experimental vaccines. Though the Department of Defense and NIH have used squalene in vaccines in the late 1980s, they have denied using them during the Gulf War and do not know why 97 percent of sick veterans receiving at least one vaccination had elevated squalene levels. The results, according to researchers, may not point to the vaccines themselves but to some other organism in the vaccine that could trigger antibodies.
     Is there a treatment_ According to Dr. Nicolson, there is. Over the past several years, Nicolson has treated many Gulf War Vets with a regimen of either Doxycycline (aka Vibramycin, Monodox, Doxychel, Doxy-D, Doryx), Ciprofloxacin (aka Cipro, Cifox, Cifran, Ciloxan, Ciplox), Azithromycin (aka Zithromax), or Clarithromycin (aka Biaxin). Dr. Nicolson claims that infected patients begin to feel better within 1-6 weeks.
     Why would the government continue to deny the possibility that at least some Gulf War Veterans are suffering from exposure to biological agents_ Based on testimony before Congress, two reasons are suggested: (1) The government does not want to be held responsible for the tens of thousands of vets who may be infected or who have died either directly or indirectly from mycoplasma infection (some estimates claim that as many as 12,000 Gulf War Vets have died worldwide); and (2) the government does not want an investigation into its role in the manufacture and distribution of as many as 52 different biological agents (including anthrax) to Iraq before Desert Storm. Evidence points to Houston, Texas and Boca Raton, Florida as the sources of the mycoplasma.
     A recently published book,