It is widely believed that the various illnesses may have been caused by exposure to organophospherous pestcicides, by tablets taken as a precaution against chemical weapons, by the cocktail of injections against biological warfare agents given in a short period of time, or by a combination of these factors. Mr Soames admitted that the MoD has misinformed him on the extent to which organophophates had been used and has launched an inquiry into how that happened. He replied that the number was about five or six. Dr David Clarke, Labours defence spokesman, last night demanded all remaining details of the vaccinations to be revealed. The Government must now come completely clean about what went on and ought to step up its efforts to find out what happened to these men and women.
All drugs used in the Gulf ought to be declassified.
Dr Clarke has written to Mr Soames asking for an explanation, but last night the MoD insisted it had revealed full information about vaccinations given to Gulf troops. He is suffering from a form of Gulf War Illness and is no longer fit to work. He received a letter dated 12 November from Brigadier McDermott of the Army's medical directorate saying some of the injections he had been given were classified and secret and were therefore not recorded. He claimed that he knew of no vaccines that had not been declassified or which were classified secret. He knew about plague, anthrax and pertussis vaccines and said that if there were any others he wanted to know about them.