Nation IN BRIEF : WASHINGTON, D.C. : Panel Probes Gulf Veterans’ Ailments

Some Gulf War veterans are suffering from “undiagnosable” ailments, but there is no hard evidence of widespread disease linked to Persian Gulf service, federal officials said. A small number of cases “present complex health issues, some of which appear to defy our best efforts to define them,” said Dr. James W. Holsinger Jr., undersecretary of health in the Veterans Affairs Department. He was among dozens of officials, veterans and doctors who testified before a House Veterans Affairs subcommittee on mysterious maladies that have beset some who served in Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq. The victims claim that thousands are suffering from such symptoms as fatigue, loss of memory, intestinal and heart problems, hair loss and body sores.