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WASHINGTON - February 23 - Rep. Bernard Sanders (I-VT) will deliver the opening address Sunday at the largest scientific conference ever held on Gulf War Illness, hosted by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. Sanders has been a leader in Congress on Gulf War Illness issues.

The three-day conference will feature panel discussions and working groups involving many of the leading doctors and scientists in the country who have been working on Gulf War Illness. Gulf War veterans will also be participating. The conference will be held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Atlanta.

"It is our hope that the conference will lead to new recommendations for treatment for Gulf War veterans who have been suffering too long without adequate care, and that everyone leaves Atlanta with a better understanding of Gulf War Illness and its impact on those veterans," Sanders said.

Sanders noted this conference is taking place as treatment trials for Gulf War Illness are beginning at 30 Veterans Administration hospitals around the country as part of a $20 million study. Two sets of trials will be conducted. One will enroll 450 veterans who test positive for mycoplasma infection - believed to be a cause of a variety of symptoms experienced by Gulf War veterans - who will be given the antibiotic doxycycline for 12 months. The second will enroll 1,356 veterans in a program that will use cognitive behavior therapy and exercise treatment. These are the first treatment trials ever conducted by the Veterans Administration. They take place eight years after the end of the Gulf War.

More than 100,000 Gulf War veterans are believed to be suffering from the various maladies - including memory loss, rashes, chronic fatigue, aching joints and a flu-like illness called fibromyalgia - collectively known as Gulf War Illness. Sanders has recently met with 135 Vermont veterans who are suffering from these problems.

"We do not know today the exact cause or causes of Gulf War Illness," Sanders said, "but we do know the war zone was extremely toxic, and the men and women who served there were exposed to heavy amounts pesticides, depleted uranium, fumes from burning oil wells, and infectious agents. Many were given vaccinations as well as an anti-nerve gas agent, pyridostigmine bromide, that may have helped made them sick, and some were exposed to nerve gas when U.S. forces blew up an Iraqi arms depot."

"As a result, there are a lot of people out there who served their country and later became very sick," Sanders said. "They endured years of frustration as their suffering was ignored, then it was dismissed as the result of stress. That is finally changing. We believe this conference and the treatment trials that are beginning will help hasten the day when effective treatment is available to the tens of thousands of Gulf War veterans who need it."