This update has described how Gulf health research has developed over the past two years. In January 1996, MoD asked the MRC for their assistance in commissioning a programme of research to investigate Gulf veterans' health concerns. The MRC issued a 'Call for Proposals' in May 1996. All proposals were peer-reviewed and detailed applications were invited from a short-list of nine. In October 1996 the MRC recommended to MoD that two epidemiological studies should be funded; one to be carried out by Professor Cherry from Manchester University and the other by Dr Doyle of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The MRC also recommended that these researchers should collaborate with Professor Wessely of King's College, London who had already been funded by the Americans to conduct an epidemiological study on British Gulf veterans. In making their recommendations, the MRC advised that the researchers should assess the feasibility of tracing ex-service personnel and the availability of exposure data. Both these areas are giving cause for concern. The researchers are working with MoD staff to improve the quality of available address data. The main challenge facing MoD now is to ensure that the input data provided to researchers is of a high enough standard to enable them to achieve acceptable response rates. Since commissioning the epidemiological studies, there have been two further initiatives. In May 1997, the Government announced that MoD would commission research to investigate potential adverse effects to the combination of medical counter-measures administered to British personnel during Operation GRANBY. Preliminary work on this programme has started. In March 1998, the Government announced that Professor Wessely's team would be funded to carry out a thorough neurophysiological assessment of unwell veterans and controls identified during his epidemiological study.
本次更新介绍了海湾地区健康研究在过去两年中的发展情况。1996年1月，国防部请求医学研究委员会协助开展一项研究计划，以调查海湾战争退伍军人的健康问题。医学研究委员会于1996年5月发布了“征集提案”通知。所有提案都经过了同行评审，并邀请了九份入围名单中的详细申请。1996年10月，医学研究委员会向国防部建议资助两项流行病学研究；一项由曼彻斯特大学的彻里教授进行，另一项由伦敦卫生与热带医学院的多伊尔博士进行。医学研究委员会还建议这些研究人员应与伦敦国王学院的韦塞利教授合作，韦塞利教授已获得美国资助，对英国海湾战争退伍军人进行流行病学研究。在提出建议时，医学研究委员会建议研究人员评估追踪退役军人的可行性以及暴露数据的可用性。这两个领域都令人担忧。研究人员正在与国防部工作人员合作，以提高现有地址数据的质量。国防部目前面临的主要挑战是确保提供给研究人员的输入数据具有足够高的标准，以使他们能够获得可接受的回复率。自委托进行流行病学研究以来，又有两项举措。1997年5月，政府宣布国防部将委托进行研究，以调查在“格兰比行动”期间给予英国人员的医疗对策组合可能产生的不良影响。该计划的初步工作已经开始。1998年3月，政府宣布将资助韦塞利教授的团队对其流行病学研究中确定的身体不适的退伍军人和对照组进行全面的神经生理学评估。
