Can Antibiotics Cure Gulf War Veterans Illnesses?
Many veterans of the first Gulf War have had a variety of chronic physical and mental symptoms (Gulf War veterans’ illnesses, or GWVIs) in the years since that war. Symptoms of GWVIs are often poorly defined and are not limited to any one organ in the body. They include fatigue, joint and muscle pains, night sweats, rashes, headaches, diarrhea, and problems with thinking clearly or with memory. Doctors don’t know what causes GWVIs. Possible causes include psychological trauma and exposure to toxic chemicals or to fallout from destroyed nuclear reactors. Blood tests suggest that as many as 40% of veterans with GWVIs may have chronic bacterial infections. Mycoplasma species are some of the bacteria most commonly detected. We don’t know whether chronic infection with these bacteria actually causes some GWVIs, and we don’t know how patients with chronic Mycoplasma infections typically do over time. However, we do know that antibiotics can kill these bacteria. Thus, if Mycoplasma infection
