After years of being ignored and threatened, Dr. Garth Nicolson of The Institute of Molecular Medicine in California announced in early Feburary that the US Department of Defense has contracted with the doctor's institute in order to train scientists and physicians at the Department of Defense and others. These medical professionals will be trained to conduct the specialized testing needed to detect mycoplasmal infections in the blood of Gulf War Vetrerans. Dr. Nicolson has said the Mycoplasma incognitus and other mycoplasmal infections have also been seen in a high percentage of CFIDS patients (see winter National Forum, Vol. 1, No. 3). The rare form of bacteria he has found in both GWI and PWCS who have been disabled for many years are treated with an antibiotic therapy. The Mycoplasma incognitus found by Drs. Garth and Nancy Nicolson has a piece of the HIV envelope, but HIV is not found inside the envelope. Instead, a mix of different bacteria from other illnesses is present. This is not something that could happen in the natural course of evolution and is proof, Dr. Nicolson believes, of biological warfare. It is something that must have been man-made!

     Dr. Nicolson's daughter served in the Persian Gulf War and came back very ill along with most of her platoon. Subsequently, both Drs. Garth and Nancy Nicolson became ill and their cat died from this mysterious illness. Only an antibiotic regimen helped his daughter, his wife, and himself. In an effort to spread the word to all veterans, Dr. Nicolson testified in front of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Illness and even agreed to an article in The National Enquirer. A highly respected scientist, Dr. Nicolson found the staff of the MD Cancer Institute in Texas being threatened by his work. Not wanting his colleagues to lose their government funding, he moved to California and set up the Institute of Molecular Medicine in Huntington Beach.

     After years of being harassed, as well as being the object of scorn by a recently aired program on gulf war illness filmed by the Public Education Television in Boston, the Department of Defense seems, at last, to be taking Dr. Nicolson and his work seriously enough to begin this testing effort.

     In our last issue, we offered a six-page regimen by Dr. Nicolson of supplemental considerations for GWI and CFIDS/FM. It also includes a form for a patient to request their own individual testing and a list of recent peer-reviewed publications on this bacteria. The list includes 10 publications of a total of 460 medical and scientific publications by Dr. Nicolson, which doesn't include his 13 books! This information is still available to our members free of charge with just a request and a self-addressed, stamped envelope sent to the National CFIDS Foundation, 103 Aletha Rd., Needham, MA 02192.

     The news may not be as good as it looks, however. Although representatives from the Walter Reed Army Hospital visited Dr. Nicolson's laboratory, he still found it necessary to hold a press conference in late February. For the first time, the editors of The International Journal of Medicine will be publishing all the tests that are being used to determine the cause of the illness, since the Veteran's Administration and the Department of Defense has suppressed them. In addition, they will publish the uncensored, declassified documents relating to the government cover-up of GWI. At last, "the American people will be able to read the uncensored, declassified documents relating to the governmental cover-up.. learn about this disease that has killed thousands of veterans already and spread to their family, dogs, cats, and into the general population. This illness is more contagious than AIDS because it is airborne. The people need to know about GWI because it is spreading worldwide, unchecked, with fatal consequences.