Vaccinations as risk factors for ill health in veterans of the Gulf war

doi:10.1136/bmj.322.7282.361

BMJ 2001;322:361 ( 10 February )

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Vaccinations as risk factors for ill health in veterans of the Gulf war

Conclusion may be flawed by inadequate data

Authors' reply

Conclusion may be flawed by inadequate data

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

EDITOR $---$ Hotopf et al's conclusion that there is an association between ill health in veterans of the Gulf war and immunisationsgiven during the deployment may be flawed by inadequate data. ¹ ²

Before deployment, routine vaccinations are brought up to date and vaccinations specific to deployment are given. For theGulf conflict a vaccination programme against biological warfareagents had to be implemented $---$ hence the differences between immunisationsgiven before and during deployment. The authors state that personnelreceived vaccines both before and during deployment, but the resultsindicate that only 38% of their sample did. We find this proportionto be surprisingly low. The implication that around a third ofthe force received no vaccinations during the deployment or thata similar proportion had none before deployment is at odds withour review of the immunisation programme.³

The finding that only some 30% of personnel received cholera vaccine before . . . [Full text of this article]

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Role of vaccinations as risk factors for ill health in veterans of the Gulf war: cross sectional study: Matthew Hotopf, Anthony David, Lisa Hull, Khalida Ismail, Catherine Unwin, and Simon Wessely
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