Gulf War syndrome, also referred to as chronic multisymptom illness and Gulf War illness, is a term used to describe medically unexplainable symptoms that affect approximately 250,000 of the 697,000 veterans who served in the 1991 Gulf War. Because a syndrome identifies previously unknown symptoms and the symptoms associated with Persian Gulf War service are not unknown, the more appropriate term for this malady is Gulf War illness, according to a report by the King’s Centre for Military Health Research as well as a 2014 report by the National Academy of Sciences, Institute of Medicine.

In a report dated February 4, 2013, the congressionally mandated Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans’ Illnesses encouraged the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to establish a single case ...