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1. To increase
awareness of the urgent need for formal recognition of M.E. as a
disabling neuroimmune disease afflicting nearly a million people
in the U.S. and 17 million people worldwide, based on over two decades of solid research and over 70
years of clinical observations, and has a World Health Organization
(WHO) listing in the neurological chapter of the
International Classification of Diseases (ICD) since 1969.
2.
[*Goal met July 2011!] To
increase awareness of the need for a research definition based on
hard evidence of multiple body system abnormalities, not on
degrees or variations of "fatigue," or a within broad category of
fatiguing and psychological illnesses.
3.
[Updated July 2011] To
advocate for the implementation of the
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis: International Consensus Criteria and
The Nightingale Definition of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.)
not only here in the U.S, but worldwide, to make these
valuable documents available to all health care professionals, and
to support their operationalizing to an international research definition.
4. Through the above
actions, bring the internationally used and correct term, M.E.,
into common usage and familiarity in every medical establishment and
household in the U.S.
This disease needs to be distinguished from CFS, for the benefit
of both M.E. patients and those diagnosed with CFS that do
not fit M.E. definitions. Some treatments for CFS can be
seriously harmful for those with clearly defined M.E., and some
CFS patients are prematurely (mis)diagnosed without thorough
screening for M.E. or other serious but treatable illnesses, and everyone in this country
and abroad - medical practitioners and general public alike - needs to be aware of these facts.
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