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German Bundestag – Experts call for help for patients with ME/CFS

Article extracts

Breaking latest news shares an article in which experts call for targeted help for people who are suffering from ME/CFS in Germany.

Physicians and professional associations are calling for targeted help for patients suffering from myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). Specialist care and increased research would be needed, experts said in a hearing by the Health Committee on an application (20/4886) of the Union faction. The experts expressed themselves in the hearing on Wednesday and in written statements.

The motion states that ME/CFS is a serious, multisystem disorder that causes fatigue and post-exertional malaise (PEM). The MPs are calling for immediate financial and structural support for the establishment of the competence centers and interdisciplinary outpatient clinics for ME/CFS mentioned in the coalition agreement.

According to the German Society for ME/CFS, the disease has been “marginalized or misclassified” since it was classified as a neurological condition by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 1969. ME/CFS has been “in the blind spot of the healthcare system” for decades. Investment in ME/CFS research has been neglected for decades.

According to the National Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians (KBV), the diagnosis of ME/CFS is difficult. There are no objective diagnostic tests to confirm the disease. Therefore, a complex, symptom-oriented, differential diagnostic clarification is almost always required, often as a diagnosis of exclusion.

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