Parasite may be killing veterans
HERALD, West Virginia — A half century after serving in Vietnam, hundreds of veterans have a new reason to believe they may be dying from a silent killer.
Test results show that some of the men may have been infected by a parasite while fighting in the jungles of Southeast Asia.
The Department of Veterans Affairs this spring commissioned a small pilot study to look into the link between liver flukes ingested through raw or undercooked fish and a rare bile duct cancer. It can take decades for symptoms to appear. By then, patients are often in tremendous pain, with just a few months to live.
Of the 50 blood samples submitted, more than 20 percent came back positive or bordering positive for liver fluke antibodies, said Hong Sung-tae, the tropical medicine specialist who carried out the tests at Seoul National University in South Korea.
I was in a state of shock. I didn’t think it would be me.” Gerry Wiggins, former US soldier who served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969
“It was surprising,” he added, stressing the preliminary results could include false positives and that the research is ongoing.
Northport VA Medical Center spokesman Christopher Goodman confirmed the New York facility collected the samples and sent them to the lab. He would not comment on the findings, but said everyone who tested positive was notified.
Gerry Wiggins, who served in Vietnam from 1968 to 1969, has already lost friends to the disease. He was among those who got the call.
“I was in a state of shock,” he said. “I didn’t think it would be me.”
The 69-year-old didn’t have any symptoms when he agreed to take part in the study, but hoped his participation could help save lives. He immediately scheduled further tests, discovering he had two cysts on his bile duct, which had the potential to develop into the cancer, known as cholangiocarcinoma. They have since been removed and for now he’s doing well.
Though rarely found in US citizens, the parasites infect an estimated 25 million people worldwide.
The study began after a report last year found that about 700 veterans with cholangiocarcinoma have been seen by the VA in the past 15 years. Less than half of them submitted claims for service-related benefits, mostly because they were not aware of a possible connection to Vietnam.
The numbers of claims submitted reached 60 this year, up from 41 last year. Nearly three out of four of those cases were also denied, even though the government posted a warning on its website this year saying veterans who ate raw or undercooked freshwater fish while in Vietnam might be at risk.