German Minister of Health pledges support for ME/CFS
On May 11, the #Liegendemo (lying down demonstration) took place in Berlin and eleven other German cities on the occasion of International ME/CFS Day
In addition to representatives of patients and scientists, the German Minister of Health, Karl Lauterbach, attended in Berlin and pledged support for ME/CFS patients. Among other things, he said that ME/CFS was a serious disease that had been known for decades and had also been neglected for decades.
He further emphasised that ME/CFS had been neglected in research, in treatment, in recognition, in practice, in everyday life and in care. He gave the demonstrators his word that the federal government would do everything in its power to rectify these shortcomings, which have been tolerated for far too long.
He explained that it had been clear from the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic that many would be left behind with severe disabilities and that the most important disability was indeed ME/CFS.
The minister said that it was sad that it took the pandemic for the disease to be recognized by the public at all. Measures that he had taken include a round table for Long COVID, but he also described a renaissance in research into ME/CFS. He was grateful that the disease was becoming less taboo with the help of patients.
Government grants
In recent years, ME/CFS patient organizations in Germany have been able to secure several government grants, including €18 million for clinical trials and €15 million for basic laboratory research into ME/CFS. In addition, the Ministry of Health has created a €150 million grant for health care research into Long COVID to which ME/CFS researchers can also apply. Prof. Scheibenbogen from the Charité university hospital Berlin, who also attended the demonstration, declared that at the end of the year over 30 different research groups would conduct research into ME/CFS all over Germany.
Though awareness and recognition of ME/CFS is changing in Germany, the situation is still very precarious for patients: only two outpatient clinics exist countrywide, and most doctors neither recognise nor understand the disease.
Submitted by Dt. Gesellschaft für ME/CFS
Liegend Demo
In the March 2024 issue of the ME Global Chronicle, we reported about a new German initiative, Liegend Demo (lying down demonstration).
Now they’re also on facebook.
In a Google-drive file you can get a small impression of the impressive amount of actions that have already taken place in Germany and Austria until 8th May. Further demonstartions took place in 12 towns in Germany on May 11th.
More info with pictures in the article on Liegend Demo in this issue of the ME Global Chronicle
The ME Global Chronicle 