International ME/CFS Awareness Day 12th May
Help Raise Awareness Worldwide
Sat 12th May 2012
International ME/CFS Day raises awareness about ME/CFS, a widespread and debilitating condition. This event promotes a greater understanding of ME/CFS and the impact it can have on a person’s life.
International ME/CFS Day is set to fall on the birth date of the pioneering nurse, Florence Nightingale.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) / Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), is a chronic, debilitating condition which brings a wide range of symptoms that can vary in type and intensity.
For an indepth look at M.E:-
Hummingbirds’ Foundation for M.E.
Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) is a debilitating neurological disease which has been recognised by the World Health Organisation (WHO) since 1969 as a distinct organic neurological disorder.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) is characterised by a range of neurological symptoms and signs, muscle pain with intense physical or mental exhaustion, relapses, and specific cognitive disabilities. ME is classified by the World Health Organisation as a neurological illness (International Classification of Disease 10: G93.3).
The cardinal symptoms of ME are profound, generalised post-exertional loss of muscle power (fatigability); muscle pain that may include tenderness and swelling; and neurological signs.
Patients are also prone to relapses which may take the form of recurrences of the original systemic illness, or fresh episodes of muscle weakness, neurologic changes or well-defined cognitive problems. As with many chronic illnesses, fatigue may be present, but in ME patients the fatigue is post-exertional, often delayed, and quite unlike the ‘fatigue’ experienced by healthy people.
During the 1990s, the term ‘chronic fatigue syndrome’ (CFS) came into vogue. Since there was no specific diagnostic test for ME, and since post-exercise ‘fatigue’ was one of its prominent symptoms, people with ME began to be diagnosed with ‘CFS’. In recent years, however, there has been a growing recognition that the diagnosis ‘CFS’ — based on a list of vague non-specific symptoms — is so broad that it encompasses a range of diverse patient groups.
A recent revised Canadian definition has suggested that people with ME be recognised as a separate subgroup of CFS.