Immune system can aim at red blood cells, joints, colon, liver, kidneys, nervous system, etc  It may be almost entirely an autoimmune issue.

Response:
Dear Ms. Hursh

    Thank you for your recent e-mail.  My name is Joan, and I am 
responding on behalf of the Director of Deployment Health Support.

    In your e-mail you asked how many Gulf War veterans have been 
diagnosed with autoimmune disease.  We don't know the answer to that question 
because most Gulf War veterans obtain their health care from private sources. 
The government does not have access to confidential medical information 
about the health of private citizens.

    However, because the health status of Gulf War veterans has been of
great interest since the war ended in 1991, a number of epidemiologic studies
have been performed on samples of Gulf War veterans.   Researchers have used
samples to estimate the frequency of medical conditions in the entire 
Gulf War veteran population.  The studies compared the frequency of symptoms or
specific diagnoses in samples of Gulf War veterans and in samples of 
other veterans of the same time period who did not serve in the Persian Gulf
region.

    Mail and telephone surveys of Gulf War veterans have found that 
they more often reported troubling symptoms than the comparison group.  The 
VA's National Survey found the same thing, as well as the fact that Gulf War
veterans have higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and symptoms 
of chronic fatigue.   When veterans in the National Survey went through
detailed medical evaluations, there was no difference in the frequency of other
specific medical diagnoses.

    In addition, studies of hospitalization in military hospitals have
shown no differences in the frequency of most conditions, including autoimmune
diseases.

If Gulf War veterans are experiencing more autoimmune disease than 
would be expected, the excess is not detectable through the studies described.

    It is important to recognize that service in the military does not
confer protection against most diseases that affect the general population.   Most 
conditions that afflict members of the general population also occur among military
personnel and veterans.  When scientists study the possibility that military 
service may have caused a disease, they must first estimate what would be the expected
frequency of the disease among military personnel.   

The researchers then determine if the expected frequency has been exceeded.   

To date, the only conditions for which Gulf War veterans appear to have 

a rate of disease higher than would be expected are PTSD, chronic fatigue syndrome, 

and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

There has been no evidence of increased frequencies of multiple sclerosis, type 1
diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus erythematosus, or myasthenia gravis.  Some 
Gulf War veterans have been diagnosed with autoimmune diseases, but we have seen 
no evidence so far that this group of illnesses is more prevalent in Gulf 
War veterans than in the general population.

    Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your concerns.  We hope
this information is helpful to you.

2-7-05