Following growing criticism that researchers pay little attention to myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME / SFC), the National Institutes of Health (NIH) announced today that it is intensifying efforts to understand what causes the disease and disconcerting to find treatments for it.
NIH Director Francis Collins said science that some researchers have long been reluctant to study ME / CFS because it was an area of research "tumultuous", with high-profile tracks that imploded and vocal advocacy community. The attitude among many researchers was "maybe this is an insoluble problem, we will work only on something else," said Collins. "I am pleased to say that we counter this attitude quite strongly here."
NIH did not commit new funding for ME / CFS research, but its clinical center plans to launch a study on the low after they develop symptoms related to a probable infection but not yet identified. (the symptoms are neurological and cognitive problems to immune and sleep abnormalities.) NIH also moves monitoring ME / CFS research the Office of research on women's health at the National Institute of neurological disorders and Stroke (NINDS).
defender of the disease Robert Miller, that Collins called this morning before the announcement, applauded the decision and the patient population for its effective lobbying. "for the patient population is huge," said Miller, a former coal miner who lives in Reno, Nevada, and has developed the disease in 1982 after a bout with the flu. "One of the really important things is that we are essentially be transferred out of Siberia," Miller said, referring to the passage of the health of the female branch poorly funded to NINDS.
NIH currently spends only 5 million $ disease, the US Centers for disease Control and Prevention estimates affects over 1 million Americans. His "axis of renewed research" comes after a report Institute of medicine (IOM) released in February that said "remarkably little research funding" had gone toward understanding causality, pathophysiology and treatment of ME / CFS. Collins said the report, IOM has also called for renaming ME / CFS "disease of systemic stress intolerance", a nickname that has received little traction is only one factor behind the new NIH program. "I troubled the lack of answers we have for this condition since I became director of the NIH, "said Collins, who took the post in 09.
Miller said" it would be nice if they had put a dollar amount. "on the new NIH research button, but said he was convinced by the assurance of Collins as purse strings loosen" in the past, they said: "This n 'there is not enough science to put more money in, "he said. "They do not do it now."
Collins said NINDS director Walter Koroshetz is "determined to move quickly on this," including from issuing a new request for proposals for extramural researchers. "Give us a chance to prove that we are serious, because we are," says Collins.
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