LONDON (Reuters) -
A British study has found no link
between illness among British troops sent to Iraq and multiple
vaccinations. Instead, it says the troops tend to blame poor
health on multiple jabs even when they did not have them.

Several studies have linked ill health in forces in Iraq to
multiple vaccinations, but Dominic Murphy, a psychologist at
King's College London, said these relied on troops' own
recollections, and should be re-evaluated.

“Multiple vaccinations given to personnel in the UK armed
forces in preparation for deployment to Iraq are not associated
with adverse health consequences w(en vaccinations are recorded
objectively from medical records,” said the study carried out
by Murphy's team, published in Tuesday's British Medical
Journal.

The team randomly selected nearly 5,000 men and women
deployed to Iraq since 2003 and asked them about their health
and how many vaccinations they recalled receiving.

The veterans more likely to report symptoms of fatigue,
stress and other physical problems were those who recalled
having two or more vaccinations in a single day, the study
found. These people also rated their health as worse.

But when Murphy and colleagues checked the health records
of 10 percent of these men and women selected at random, they
found that, whereas 70 percent reported receiving one or more
vaccinations on a single day, medical records showed only 43
percent got that many at once, Murphy said.

“This is the first time we have been able to access medical
records instead of relying on just self-reporting,” he said in
a telephone interview.

“Ill solders are more likely to have recalled receiving
more vaccinations when in many cases they actually did not have
that many.”

Many British and U.S. troops sent to Iraq have complained
of poor health, similar to veterans of the 1991 Gulf War.
Suspected possible causes include exposure to pesticides,
uranium, nerve gas, other chemicals — and vaccinations.

A large U.S. review in 2006 showed that troops deployed
during the 1990-1991 Gulf War get sicker than most other
veterans but did not turn up evidence of a common “Gulf War
Syndrome.”

“Some of the studies that have implicated multiple
vaccinations as a cause of illness for soldiers who served in
Iraq should maybe be reinterpreted in light of our findings,”
Murphy said.

British troops sent to Iraq are routinely vaccinated
against anthrax, tetanus, typhoid and yellow fever.