French to Check Liaison Officers for Gulf Syndrome

September 14, 2000

PARIS (Reuters) - France, which suspects vaccines given to U.S. and British soldiers were responsible for so-called Gulf War Syndrome, is to check the health records of Frenchmen who served as liaison personnel with allied forces in the conflict.

``We're pretty well convinced that certain Frenchmen were vaccinated together with the (allied) troops they were stationed with,'' defense ministry spokesman Jean-Francois Bureau told reporters.

Defense Minister Alain Richard announced on Wednesday the creation of an independent commission into the health of the French military who served in the Gulf War.

The decision came after about 80 veterans said they suffered from mysterious illnesses ranging from flu to chronic fatigue and asthma -- just like U.S. and British veterans complaining about ``Gulf War syndrome.''

France will also ask Washington whether American troops who served under French command, receiving U.S. vaccines, had medical records any different from other U.S. troops.

A U.S. artillery brigade of about 3,000 men was attached to the French Daguet light armored division in the 1991 conflict.

Armed forces medical corps spokesman Colonel Michel Estripeau, himself a doctor, said France's belief that allied troops were victims of their own protective measures were based on a long series of meetings with U.S. medical experts.

``About 100,000 of the 600,000 Americans who served in the Gulf complain of ailments tentatively been lumped under the Gulf War syndrome heading.

``No one has yet come to definitive conclusions but we note that of 25,000 Frenchmen who served in the Gulf, only 180 have ailments whose origin could be in question. The only really major difference between the two groups is vaccinations,'' he said.

Estripeau said U.S. troops received massive ``cocktails'' of drugs for long periods as preventive treatment against possible chemical or biological attacks, while the French received limited treatments only when they might be in danger.

Defense Minister Richard said on Wednesday that, contrary to the U.S., the French did not make their soldiers take regular doses of pyridostigmine bromide -- a drug used to protect against nerve agents Iraq is known to possess.