The payment of allowances will be implemented after April 26, the effective date of a VA’s new regulation that adds leukemia, Parkinson and heart diseases into the list of health problems relating to Agent Orange (AO).

Earlier, the US government received petitions for compensation from 86,000 US war veterans in Vietnam who suffer from ischemic heart disease (IHD), Parkinson and B-cell blood cancers, also known as B-cell leukemia.

According to the VA’s new regulation, which was announced by Secretary Eric Shinseki on Oct. 13, 2009, US veterans who were exposed to AO during the war in Vietnam and were suffering from one of the above-mentioned diseases were considered for the government’s social welfares.

The decision was based on VA’s Institution of Medicine findings.

Accordingly, the categories of patients to enjoy allowances due to AO exposure will increase to 15.

The department also estimated that about 250,000 war veterans would apply for allowance in accordance with the new policy.

The policy’s most important point is the inclusion of IHD in the list of beneficiary diseases as the number of IHD sufferers accounts for 82 percent of the total war veteran patients.

According to the VA, of the total 86,000 new beneficiaries, nearly 70,000 are Vietnam-war veterans with an average age of 63. Among them, 62,200 are suffering from IHD, 5,400 from B-cell leukima and 2,300 from Parkinson.

Estimated allowances for those suffering from added diseases will reach US$13.6 billion in fiscal year 2010 and US$ 42.2 billion in the next 10 years.