SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH INTO MYALGIC ENCEPHALOPATHY/ENCEPHALOMYELITIS

Motion Text

That this House notes that 2005 is the 50th anniversary of the first description in medical literature of the illness myalgic encephalopathy/encephalomyelitis (ME); is concerned by the subsequent lack of scientific research into the illness during that time, which has been a cause of distress to the quarter million ME sufferers in the UK; reminds the Government of the study, ME: Cost to the Nation, that put the annual economic cost of ME at £3.5 billion; is dismayed to learn that one of the few contemporary scientific studies into the causes of this illness, carried out at Glasgow University, is under threat from lack of funds; and calls on the Government to provide the necessary funds to secure and promote this and other studies into the cause and treatment of ME.