MedPage Today: ME/CFS is Gaining Attention

MedPage Today Focuses on Need for Recognition of ME/CFS and Research Funding

MedPage Today, a news site for medical workers, published an article about ME/CFS that mentions the #MEAction campaign to increase federal research funding.
The article gathered quotes from top ME/CFS researchers Leonard Jason and Lucinda Bateman, and it summarized the findings of the recent Institute of Medicine report on ME/CFS. Physicians who know little about ME/CFS can get a quick education about the seriousness of the illness and the need for more research by reading the piece.
The article also points out the problems in how the National Institutes of Health reviews grant applications for ME/CFS, and quotes Carol Head of the Solve ME/CFS Initiative urging the NIH to create a dedicated pot of funding to research ME/CFS.
In highlighting the 30-year debate over whether ME/CFS is “real,” the piece also revisits the 1996 case of Judith Curren, an ME/CFS patient who took her own life with the assistance of Dr. Jack Kevorkian.
One tip to the MedPage Today editors: “Chronic fatigue” is a symptom, not an illness, so you might want to change your headline.
[pullquote align=”full” cite=”” link=”” color=”#E6443D” class=”” size=””] Both the IOM report and the CFSAC recommendations emphasized the dearth of federal investment in the disease.

The economic burden of ME/CFS to society — based on lost productivity and medical expenses — stands somewhere from $17 to 24 billion annually, according to the IOM.

Yet NIH spent only $5 million on the disease in fiscal year 2015. An agency report ranks funding for the condition at 231 out of 244 disease research categories, noted a patient’s open letter to Francis Collins, MD, PhD, director of the NIH, in the Washington Post.
[/pullquote]

Facebook
Twitter
WhatsApp
Email

Latest News

black square image with two white lines at the top and bottom of the image. Then another two white lines come out from the sides to the middle over the #MEAction logo and the words, #NotJustFatigue Video Series Elizabeth Ansell Interview.

#NotJustFatigue Video Series: Interview with Creator Elizabeth Ansell

Over the past year, the #NotJustFatigue website, created by Elizabeth Ansell, releases a 10-part, documentary style, short form video series on different aspects involved in living with ME. Titles of the videos include topics such as: You Have No Idea How Serious This Is, Nobody Believes ME, and It’s Not Hysteria: It’s Sexism. In these

Read More »
navy blue square. there are two white lines at the top and bottom of the square. The #MEAction logo in at the top of the image. The words #MEAction Georgia Voice of the Patient in coordination with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention & Emory School of Nursing.

#MEAction Georgia: Voice of the Patient in Coordination with CDC & Emory School on Nursing

Back in September, #MEAction Georgia State Chapter partnered with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Emory School of Nursing to host, Voice of the Patient: A Panel Discussion with #MEAction Georgia. This event was a continuation of #MEAction Georgia’s #MillionsMissing 2024: #TeachMETreatME programming. Erin Lee and Liz Burlingame of the #MEAction Georgia

Read More »
a light blue square image with medical instruments/tools as a border (pill bottles, scales, needles, covid protein spike, etc). At the top of the image is the Home Test to Treat Program logo, in blue font: Findings Summary. Below that the #MEAction logo and Body Politic Logo.

Home Test To Treat – Findings Summary

#MEAction and Body Politic collaborated last spring, with a new national telehealth program, Home Test to Treat. We are now able to share initial findings from the program! Here are some highlights: 80K + enrolled in the program across the country! 40K + test distributed 6K + individuals treated for COVID-19 or flu 5.6K+ organizations

Read More »
Scroll to Top