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HEHS-98-139R 1 (1998-04-20)

handle is hein.gao/gaobacmdk0001 and id is 1 raw text is: 3United States A OU General Accounting Office Washington, D.C. 205 o Health, Education and Human Services Division B-279774 April 20, 1998 The Honorable Arlen Specter Chairman The Honorable John D. Rockefeller IV Ranking Minority Member Committee on Veterans' Affairs United States Senate Subject VA Health Care: Preliminary Observations on Medical Care Provided to Persian Gulf Veterans Almost 700,000 members of the U.S. military served during the Persian Gulf War. Some of these veterans have reported an array of symptoms that they attribute to their service in the Gulf War, including fatigue, skin rashes, headaches, muscle and joint pain, memory loss, shortness of breath, sleep disturbances, gastrointestinal conditions, and chest pain. The absence of data on the health status of service members who served in the Gulf War-including both baseline information and postdeployment status information-has greatly complicated the epidemiological research on the causes of Gulf War illnesses.' In 1992, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) established the Persian Gulf Registry Health Examination Program to act as a health screening database, as well as to assist Gulf War veterans in gaining entry into a continuum of VA health care services by providing them with a free initial physical examination. In 1995, VA modified the registry program by implementing the Uniform Case Assessment Protocol, a standardized approach for conducting examinations that was designed in conjunction with the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health. The protocol provides further guidance to the physicians responsible for diagnosing Persian Gulf veterans. According to VA's Under Secretary for Health, the registry's record of symptoms, diagnoses, and exposures also makes it valuable for health surveillance purposes. VA required 'Defense Health Care: Medical Surveillance Improved Since Gulf War, but Mixed Results in Bosnia (GAO/NSIAD-97-136, May 13, 1997). GAO/HEHS-98-139R VA's Persian Gulf Health Care C) -2

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