Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program (CDMRP)
Washington, DC - (91outcomes.com) =96 This year=92s push for funding the
Peer Reviewed Gulf War Illness Congressionally Directed Medical
Research Program (CDMRP) has begun with a bang =97 an initial request of
$25 million for the next fiscal year that begins this October.
By Anthony Hardie
The Fiscal Year 2013 initiative to request $25 in treatment-oriented
medical research Defense funding to improve the health and lives of
ill veterans is being led by Democratic Congressman Dennis Kucinich
(D-Ohio). Bipartisan legislative efforts led by Kucinich last year
resulted in a three-fifths vote on the House floor to support a 25
percent increase in the program, which is seen by Gulf War veterans as
critical to potentially improving their health and unparalleled in the
history of federally directed Gulf War related medical research.
Rep. Phil Roe (R-Tennessee), a medical doctor who serves on the House
Committee on Veterans=92 Affairs and has been instrumental in matters
related to Gulf War veterans=92 health and relevant VA programs
including a series of Congressional hearings, is co-leading the
bipartisan legislative push with a =93Dear Colleague=94 request to
generally support the program. Like each of the CDMRP medical
research programs, ranging from TBI and PTSD to ALS, MS, and cancers,
the GWI CDMRP much be specifically funded by Congress each year in
order to continue.
According to official estimates, about one-quarter million of the
roughly 697,000 who served in the 1991 Gulf War continue to suffer
from chronic multi-symptom illness, popularly known as Gulf War
Illness (GWI) or Gulf War Syndrome.
The level of funding proposed by Kucinich would be sufficient to
finally accomodate funding for all three highly promising
interdisciplinary, interinstitutional GWI medical research consortia
that have been in development for the last year, a long-sought goal of
Gulf War veterans=92 health advocates.
Launched on Thursday afternoon after significant behind the scenes
work by legislators, legislative staff, and Gulf War veterans=92
advocates, Kucinich=92s target of $25 million in FY13 Congressionally
directed Defense appropriations neatly coincides with the specifically
recommended $25 million funding level by Institute of Medicine (IOM)
Committee on Gulf War Veterans and Health chair Dr. Stephen Hauser. It
also coincides with the $25 million level recommended by the
Congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War
Veterans=92 Illnesses (RAC-GWVI) in its groundbreaking November 2008
report.
The FY13 Independent Budget, authored by four of the largest veterans
service organizations (VSO=92s) including DAV, VFW, PVA, and AMVETS and
supported by nearly 60 other organizations, contains equally strong
support of the GWI CDMRP: =94For FY 2013, the IBVSOs urge Congress to
provide the funding level necessary for this research program to
achieve the critical objectives of improving the health and lives of
Gulf War veterans.=94
To date, VA research funding officials have tended to fund Gulf War
related research proposals by researchers working alone, who must also
be VA employees. VA=92s Office of Research and Development has been
invited to collaborate with the GWI CDMRP =96 which among other unique
and efficient aspects, is open to any researcher anywhere =96 to help
advance GWI treatments and to ensure more efficient use of resources,
particularly with research conducted by VA employees that could be
funded through VA=92s existing mechanisms.
CDMRP panelists and RAC members alike have expressed hope that VA
might be able to aid in a renewed effort based on more recent evidence
helping to unravel some of GWI=92s previous mysteries, including
discoveries of neurological damage, neuro-immune dysregulation, and a
chronic inflammatory state in GWI patients.
The Gulf War veteran community was angered in late 2009 with VA=92s
announcement of the untimely dissolution of the only broad,
interdisciplinary GWI medical research consortia ever funded by the
federal government, which had been created by Congressional direction
at the request of Gulf War veterans following years of expending
hundreds of millions of dollars on DoD and VA research without any
evidence-based results to help improve GWI patients=92 health.
That lone previous consortia effort, led by Dr. Robert Haley of the
University of Texas-Southwestern, comprised more than 200 researchers
at six universities. The team had developed an animal model of Gulf
War chemical exposures, determined their effects on brain functions,
and were making initial strides in unlocking treatments for the brain
damage caused by the Gulf War chemical exposures when their efforts
were cut short due to a contract dispute.
Like Haley=92s efforts, the three consortia currently in development
involve dozens of key researchers from a multitude of research
institutions and labs, and are aimed squarely at treatments for Gulf
War Illness patients. Most are not VA employees and are therefore not
eligible for VA research funding.
The consensus among GWI medical researchers is increasingly clear,
including as publicly expressed by all three RAC scientific directors
past and present: With the right efforts, effective treatments can
indeed be found for the neurologically-based GWI. With the FY13
effort to finally adequately fund the GWI CDMRP now fully underway, it
now appears possible that this long sought goal may finally be able to
be achieved.
To achieve that goal, Gulf War veterans and their advocates now have
the unenviable task of convincing the more than 500 members of
Congress to support their quest. However, given the backing from
VSO=92s and the scientific community, this time the stars might just be
aligned in their favor.
*****
To learn more check here:
http://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2012/03/04/gulf-war-vets-push-for-fy13-gwi-c=
dmrp-funding-begins-with-a-bang/
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