VA extends Gulf War vets coverage

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Source: coastal courier

Veterans of the first Gulf War as well as current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan now have a smoother path toward receiving health-care benefits and disability compensation for nine diseases associated with their military service, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced this week.

A final regulation published in Wednesday’s Federal Register relieves veterans of the burden of proving these diseases are service-related: brucellosis, campylobacter jejuni, coxiella burnetii, malaria, mycobacterium tuberculosis, nontyphoid salmonella, shigella, visceral leishmaniasis and west Nile virus.

Shinseki added the new presumptions after reviewing a 2006 National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report on the long-term health effects of certain diseases suffered among Gulf War veterans.
He also extended the presumptions to veterans of Afghanistan, based on NAS findings that the nine diseases are prevalent there as well.

The new presumptions apply to veterans who served in southwest Asia beginning on or after the start of Operation Desert Shield on Aug. 2, 1990, through Operation Desert Storm to the present, including the current conflict in Iraq. Veterans who served in Afghanistan on or after Sept. 19, 2001, also qualify.

For Shinseki, who pledged to honor the 20th anniversary of the Gulf War by improving health-care access and benefits for its 697,000 veterans, the new presumptions represent a long-overdue step in addressing the medical challenges many face.
“This is part of historic changes in how VA considers Gulf War veterans’ illnesses,” he said. “By setting up scientifically based presumptions of service connection, we give these deserving veterans a simple way to obtain the benefits they earned in service to our country.”

Read more: http://www.coastalcourier.com/news/article/24797/