[Bob Macfarlane]

All of you are looking at this as if it is an annual occurrence, which of course, it is not. I have been very consistent in saying "OUT OF THE XXX POPULATION". I have never said otherwise and the FOIA response was for the FY08 - FY10.

MDS is what is known in the medical community as an orphan disease because it is so rare. The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) estimates that the incidence in the US of MDS is 4.3 cases per 100,000 in the general population.

In the past three years (FY08-FY10) the Veterans’ Affairs medical system has treated 4,031 cases of out of a population of 800,000 surviving Vietnam veterans. The number 4,031 comes from a Freedom of Information Act request and the 800,000 is the VA’s own statistic. That is 800,000 surviving out of the 2.6 million of us that sat boots on the ground in Vietnam.

Doing the math that is 504 cases per 100,000 or an 11,713% increase in Vietnam veterans over the general population. FOIA statistics also tells us that 30% of the 4,031 are now dead; obviously I am not yet amongst that 30%.

Between FY08 and FY10, there were 6,549 Vietnam “Era” veterans treated for MDS/AML by Veterans’ Affairs facilities but I was solely addressing MDS with the House Veterans' Affair's Committee.

As for the age factor, I was under sixty when first diagnosed and the FY10 was only 35 years after the last Americans left. There is also another interesting anomaly about the disease. As the years past, fewer and fewer decisions are rendered at the BVA covering MDS.

Perhaps as Vietnam veterans age there are less cases of MDS?

Back in 2004, Dr. Judith Karp, Head of Adult Leukemia, John Hopkins, told me to get ready to be Don Quixote because she had tried for years to help 'Nam vets against the VA only to find it was like titling are windmills.

I've battled the VA, the Institute of Medicine and many others on behalf of my brothers and the widows but I never really expected to battle another veteran.

Doubt my math? Go right ahead.

Robert J Macfarlane
Adjunct Professor Advanced Mathematics and Computer Science 40+ years
BS (Mathematics) MS (Mathematics and Computer Science)