The law gives manufacturers tax breaks on research costs and provides seven years of exclusive marketing rights for new drugs to treat illnesses afflicting fewer than 200,000 people.

The Pentagon said in response that it "has a very agressive program to seek answers to the causes of illnesses afflicting gulf war veterans."

Eusebius relates that King Abgar of Edessa (now Şanlıurfa in southeast Turkey) sent a letter to Jesus seeking a cure for an illness afflicting him.

The Pentagon said today that there was no connection between low levels of chemicals reportedly detected by allied forces in the Persian Gulf war and mysterious illnesses now afflicting many veterans.

I had no notion that it was not the same illness afflicting the others.

Diarrhea has been found to be one of the most common illness afflicting long-distance hikers in the United States.

The neurological illnesses afflicting the babies could have been caused by bacteria or by toxins, like lead or mercury.

The principal of Public School 306 in East New York, Arthella Addei, said she was told by hospital officials that the illness afflicting the students appeared to be mild food poisoning.

Many in the field believe that children thus incapacitated suffer from the same illness afflicting many Vietnam War veterans: post-traumatic stress disorder.

Officials of the hospital, in Washington's Virginia suburbs, would not describe the illness afflicting the 55-year-old Mr. Brady.