WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- Veterans of the Gulf War as well as current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan now have a smoother path toward receiving health care benefits and disability compensation for nine diseases associated with their military service, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki announced Sept. 29.

A final regulation published in the Federal Register relieves veterans of the burden of proving these diseases are service-related: brucellosis, campylobacter jejuni, coxiella burnetii (Q fever), malaria, mycobacterium tuberculosis, nontyphoid salmonella, shigella, visceral leishmaniasis and West Nile virus.

Secretary Shinseki added the new presumptions after reviewing a 2006 National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine report on the long-term health effects of certain diseases suffered among Gulf War veterans.

He also extended the presumptions to veterans of Afghanistan, based on NAS findings that the nine diseases are prevalent there as well.