ME/CFS News

Dr. Cheney Hits Back on 'Graded Exercise' for ME/CFS (and the PACE Trials)

ProHealth (ProHealth) - 18th Febuary 2011

Dr. Paul Cheney, MD, PhD, a world expert on ME/CFS, comments on the notion that patients can 'exercise their way to health with this illness.' As of February 18, 2011, the comments became hugely relevant, and central to an international furor among patients and advocates...

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Invest in ME - Initial Statement on the PACE Trials

Invest in ME (IiME) - 18th February 2011

The PACE Trials have recently been published and demonstrate clearly what is wrong with the present way that vested interests have manipulated the establishment view about myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME/CFS) and forced tens of thousands of patients and their families to live in a continual state where no proper research is sanctioned, good science is denied and where pointless and biased studies are funded by a system which denies human rights...

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ME Association press statement about the results of the PACE study

The ME Association (MEA) - 18th February 2011

"Results are at serious variance to patient evidence on both cognitive therapy and exercise therapy" - This is the response from The ME Association to the results of the PACE trial, which were published in The Lancet on Friday 18 February 2011...

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Mother's anguish over son's illness - Shropshire Star, 27 January 2011

The ME Association (MEA) - 29th January 2011

The experience of a Shropshire mother and son should be enough to convince any doubters that ME is a very real illness...

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MRC £1.5m research announcement + ME Association statement

The ME Association (MEA) - 27th January 2011

The Medical Research Council (MRC) is committing £1.5m for research into the causes of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME). The aim is to promote new and innovative partnerships between researchers already working in the CFS/ME field and those in associated areas, such as pain and fatigue. The aim is also to encourage and support more high-quality CFS/ME research proposals...

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Prof Findley and Dr. Shepherd: Money has been wasted on psychiatric research

THE NICEGUIDELINES BLOG (THE NICEGUIDELINES BLOG) - 11th November 2010

Anne Diamond on BBC Radio Berkshire discussing M.E. with Dr Charles Shepherd, Prof Leslie Findley and Phil Parker....

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The Radio broadcast can alternatively be heard directly on YouTube BBC Radio Berkshire Broadcast 11th November 2010.


New safety rules mean that people with chronic fatigue syndrome will not be able to give blood from next month

Boots WebMD (WebMD) - 8th October 2010

Patients with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, also known as ME, Myalgic Encephalopathy, Post-viral fatigue syndrome, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), will be prevented from donating blood from 1st November under new safety rules...

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Study links ME to virus

Boots WebMD (WebMD) - 7th September 2010

A team from the University of Dundee found that children with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis) - also known as chronic fatigue syndrome - were undergoing a number of physical changes, including white blood cells dying at a faster rate than normal. They say these changes suggest that people with ME may be fighting a persistent viral infection...

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Jane Colby, of The Young ME Sufferers Trust (Tymes Trust) can be heard on the BBC World Service (Chapter 7).


People with ME/CFS to be permanently excluded from giving blood in the UK from 1 November - Department of Health announcement

The ME Association (MEA) - 27th August 2010

The Department of Health has decided to ban blood donation permanently from all prospective donors in the UK who report they have had ME/CFS from 1 November this year. The decision was announced in an email sent to The ME Association today by the Department's Director of Health Protection...

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New Hope in Fatigue Fight

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) - 24th August 2010

Researchers said they had identified a family of retroviruses in patients with chronic fatigue syndrome, opening up a potentially promising new avenue of treatment for a debilitating disease that afflicts as many as four million Americans and 17 million people world-wide...

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Detection of MLV-related virus gene sequences in blood of patients with chronic fatigue syndrome and healthy blood donors

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) - 23rd August 2010

The full study paper released by the the FDA/NIH by Lo/Alter et al...

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Findings by Reno scientists confirmed by U.S. government

Reno Gazette-Journal (RGJ) - 16th August 2010

Two Reno scientists, who last year discovered a new infectious human retrovirus they linked to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, said Monday that their findings have been replicated and confirmed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...

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A UK Centre for Biomedical Research into ME

Invest in ME (IiME) - 4th August 2010

At the 5th Invest in ME International ME/CFS Conference in London in May Invest in ME announced that we had entered into discussions with the University of East Anglia to instigate a research facility for ME...

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Incapacity Benefits Migration

Disability Alliance UK (DA) - 22nd July 2010

Between October 2010 and March 2014 existing incapacity benefits claimants (those on incapacity benefit, severe disablement allowance and income support on disability grounds) will be reassessed under the employment and support allowance (ESA) Work Capability Assessment (WCA) instead of the Personal Capability Assessment...

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XMRV Research Non-Publication. Caution or Conceit?

MEshare - Google Group ME Newsletters (MEshare) - 21st July 2010

There seems little doubt that the new research into XMRV by the NIH/FDA will eventually be published, but the delay in publication raises some serious issues...

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New York Times reports the XMRV non-publication controversy

The ME Association (MEA) - 14th July 2010

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health and the Food and Drug Administration, citing a need to re-evaluate their data, have delayed publication of a new study believed to provide evidence of a link between chronic fatigue syndrome and a little-known retrovirus...

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Study that 'solves' chronic fatigue syndrome blocked

The Independent (The Independent) - 9th July 2010

A study that supports the controversial link between chronic fatigue syndrome and a new type of virus has been blocked from being published in a leading scientific journal even though it had been accepted for publication by its editors...

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Chronic-Fatigue Link to Virus Disputed

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) - 30th June 2010

Two groups of researchers studying a potential link between chronic-fatigue syndrome and a virus called XMRV have reached contradictory conclusions, according to people familiar with the findings...

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Questions raised over training role of new body for ME/CFS professionals

The ME Association (MEA) - 24th June 2010

The role of the new British Association for CFS/ME (BACME) in the training of doctors and healthcare professionals in ME should be examined by the All Party Parliamentary Group on ME (APPG) after the group reforms - preferably before the next BACME training and education conference due to be held in October 2010...

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Further Evidence of an XMRV-Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Connection?

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) - 23rd June 2010

A report that a respected NIH expert supported an association between the XMRV virus and chronic fatigue syndrome is causing a buzz among CFS patient activists, researchers and clinicians...

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Invest in ME conference, 24 May 2010 - first full length report of all the presentations

The ME Association (MEA) - 1st June 2010

This is a personal summary of the 2010 Invest in ME conference that has been prepared for ME Association members. A further summary, with additional background information, will appear in the July issue of ME Essential magazine...

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LETTER to the UK SECRETARY of STATE for HEALTH and CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER

Invest in ME (IiME) - 12th May 2010

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Blood Donations...

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The Latest Research on CFS - A Video Presentation

Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association (Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association) - 24th April 2010

A 55 minute video presentation given in Massachussets by Anthony Komaroff M.D. (Harvard Medical School).

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John Macdonald's Opinion - Sarah Myhill and the GMC 2001-2007

Dr Sarah Myhill MB BS (Dr Sarah Myhill) - 23rd April 2010

Dr Sarah Myhill and the General Medical Council - Opinion Mr John R Macdonald, Queen's Counsellor, New Square Chambers, Lincoln's Inn London...

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A letter written to the GMC from the Shropshire ME Group Secretary may be downloaded here.


GMC to Withdraw Licence from Dr Sarah Myhill

Invest in ME (IiME) - 9th April 2010

On Thursday April 8th 2010 at 10am I was ordered by the GMC to attend a Hearing in Manchester on Monday April 12th with a view to withdrawing my licence to practice...

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Follow-Up LETTER to the UK SECRETARY of STATE for HEALTH

Invest in ME (IiME) - 7th April 2010

With no reply from the Secretary of State for Health to our letter of 14th March 2010 ... Invest in ME have followed up this letter with another one...

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Virus leads Canadian blood service to ban certain donors

(www.healthzone.ca) - 6th April 2010

An AIDS-like virus that has been linked to chronic fatigue syndrome is causing Canadian blood officials to ban anyone who has suffered from the ailment from making donations...

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Potential Risk to Blood Supply Probed

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) - 4th April 2010

XMRV Virus gets attention of health officials, but it's unclear if there is any danger...

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Disabled 'wrongly denied' benefit, Citizens Advice says

BBC News (BBC) - 22nd March 2010

Thousands of seriously ill and disabled people who are unable to work are being wrongly denied benefits, a report by Citizens Advice has claimed...

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Letter from America: XMRV - The Story is Just Beginning

Invest in ME (IiME) - 21st March 2010

Recently several establishment organisations, media outlets and some individuals have been casting doubt over the recent research by the Whittemore-Peterson Institute/National cancer Institute/Cleveland Clinic.
Dr Mary Schweitzer has provided this commentary on the XMRV research...

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LETTER to the UK SECRETARY of STATE for HEALTH

Invest in ME (IiME) - 14th March 2010

Recently Mrs Ann Keen, secretary of state for Health, commented that people with Myalgic Encephalomyelitis were not able to donate blood. Invest in ME have written the following letter to the Secretary of State for Health, Mr Andy Burnham...

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XMRV and ME/CFS – Third negative study reported in the British Medical Journal

The ME Association (MEA) - 26th February 2010

A third European XMRV study, which has attempted to find the human retrovirus XMRV in people with ME/CFS, has failed to do so...

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also in...
Phoenix Rising (Phoenix Rising) - 27th February 2010

A small Dutch study found zero evidence of XMRV in chronic fatigue syndrome patients. In some ways it was the weakest study of the bunch...

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XMRV and ME/CFS? What do we know so far? And what don't we know? (version 4)

The ME Association (MEA) - 27th November 2009

Version 4 of the MEA position statement on XMRV clarifies some of the points and queries raised in the previous three summaries. Version 4 also updates the situation on XMRV research in the UK, testing for XMRV, and refers to our correspondence with the Chief Medical Officer regarding blood supplies and blood donation...

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The European ME Alliance

Invest in ME (IiME)

The European ME Alliance is a collaboration of ME organisations within Europe who have the common aim of promoting biomedical research into Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (known as ME or ME/CFS) and increasing awareness of this debilitating neurological illness...

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