Possible positive news from the United States Congress on prospects of having the ME/CFS Roadmap fully endorsed, funded and operationalised. The Senate has officially recognised the ME/CFS Research Roadmap — and has directing the NIH to create a detailed implementation plan. Next stages are that the House of Representatives is expected to release its own version of the direction in the coming months before the two chambers reconcile later this year. No allocations will be made unless the provisions are passed by both chambers in a federal budget and Presidential assent given.
The underlying Report laid out 27 specific gaps in ME/CFS knowledge/research followed by strategies to defeat these and further highlight the paucity of ambition in the UK’s Delivery Plan.
Progress has been made in preserving ME/CFS Federal research funding but not yet secured.
- $5.4m preserved for the CDC’s (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Program
- ME/CFS remains eligible for $370M in US Department of Defense research funding within the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs.
- ME/CFS is explicitly linked to Long COVID in federal research – the Senate urges NIH (National Institutes of Health), Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, and CDC to address shared symptoms across ME/CFS, long COVID, and other post-viral illnesses — including PEM, POTS, fatigue, brain fog, and more.
- As above, NIH directed to implement the ME/CFS Research Roadmap
