|
Birth Defects Study
of Veterans’ Children Shows No Linkage to Service in the Gulf
Penman, A.D. et al.
No Evidence of Increase in Birth Defects and Health Problems Among Children
Born to Persian Gulf War Veterans in Mississippi. Military Medicine 1996;
161: 1-6. This is a study of children born to veterans from two Mississippi
National Guard units which had deployed to the Gulf War. In 1993 a Jackson
newspaper reported an apparent cluster of birth defects and other health
problems among children of unit members. The state and the CDC studied
the 55 children who had been conceived and born to 52 veterans after the
deployment. Using U.S. rates for birth defects as a comparison, the investigators
could not verify the occurrence of birth defects above the frequency expected.
The average number of medical visits for respiratory and ear infections
did not appear to be excessive.
Cowan, D.N. et al. The
Risk of Birth Defects Among Children of Persian Gulf War Veterans. New
Engl J Med 1997; 336: 1650-1656. This study evaluated live births
at 135 military hospitals in 1991-1993. 33,998 infants were born to GW
veterans and 41,463 were born to a random sample of 700,000 Service members
who did not deploy. The overall risk of any birth defect was 7.45 % and
the risk of severe birth defects was 1.85 %. These rates are similar to
those reported in civilian populations. In the multivariate analysis,
there was no significant association for either men or women between service
in the GW and the risk of any birth defect or of severe birth defects
in their children. There was no evidence of reduced fertility and no significant
differences in the sex ratios of the babies.
Araneta, M.R.G. et
al. Goldenhar Syndrome Among Infants Born in Military Hospitals to Gulf
War Veterans. Teratology 1997; 56: 244-251. Because press reports
in 1995 suggested an excess of a congenital malformation called Goldenhar
syndrome among the children of Gulf War veterans (GWV), the authors searched
for cases of this syndrome among infants conceived after the Gulf War
and born to active duty military personnel in DoD hospitals. The offspring
of all GWV were compared to those of a 50% sample of veterans who had
not deployed to the Gulf (NDV). Seven children fulfilled the criteria
for Goldenhar syndrome. Five were born to GWVs and 2 to NDVs. The prevalence
was higher among GWVs’ infants, but the difference was not statistically
significant. |
