Bad News and Good News....

The bad news is that the Institute of Medicine has found a stronger association between the Agent Orange exposure of Vietnam veterans and two diseases. Ischemic heart disease and Parkinson's Disease are more closely correlated with Agent Orange (dioxin) exposure than we realized. The US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has not yet been granted authority to service connect the two disorders for veterans. Service connection means that veterans are allowed to file a claim after the fact to have a present illness recognized as having occurred in service and thus allow it to be treated in VA medical facilities. For example, if a soldier is shot in the knee that would be in his or her military medical records and entitle the veteran to life long treatment for the residuals of the injury (and death benefits to survivors if it kills you). However, certain service related illnesses are only recognized later in life and are hard to document if they occur after a person is out of the military. Agent Orange has already been linked to many disorders which had been service connected by act of Congress. So, what's the Good News? The IOM is also studying "Persian Gulf Syndrome" from the 1990-91 Gulf War so we know somebody out there cares. More information is available at the VA web site (http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/index.asp ).