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 OUR Call for stopping research into PACE/FINE trials and

redirecting funding into biomedical

 research is justified!

 

  Many people will no doubt be aware that the 25% ME Group was one of the main

charities to call for the cancellation of the PACE/FINE trials from the very onset.

 

 The 25% ME Group remains the only ME charity specifically supporting severely

affected sufferers of ME (ICD10: G93.3).  As such, we represent the interests of

severely ill ME patients, many of whom are so ill that they are totally bedridden,

some of whom are wholly dependent on carers for the basic functions of daily living

and others who are lucky enough to be able to leave home in a wheelchair occasionally!

 

 In addition to calling for the cancellation of the PACE trials, we also called for the

suspension of the FINE trials aimed directly at our client group (ie, the severely

affected) using techniques wholly inappropriate to the house and bed bound sufferer.

This would also apply to any future funding into such trials!

 

 Some members of the medical profession, especially those within the field of

 psychiatry, have consistently maintained that ME (Myalgic Encephalomyelitis) is

not a neurological condition in spite of the fact that for almost fifty years it has

been consistently reported to be a neurological condition. Well-respected medical

 professionals including Dr Richardson, Dr Ramsay, Dr Aitchinson, Dr Dowsett,

along with many others, reported findings confirming this fact. As we all know,

the World Health Organisation has also classified ME as a neurological disease

which the government and the NHS also officially accept.

 

As many of you will be aware from the latest news concerning the tragic death of

one of our members, Sophia Mirza, an Inquest was held on 13th June 2006,

in Brighton Coroners Court, England and the cause of death was stated as:-

 

'The verdict was Acute aneuric renal failure due to dehydration arising as a result of CFS'At the Inquest the pathologist also stated: -

 

'ME describes inflammation of the spinal chord and muscles. My work supports the inflammation theory. There was inflammation in the basal root ganglia.'

 

Pathologist, Dr. O’Donovan, also stated that Sophia probably died of dehydration,

technically acute aneuric renal failure.

He also stated that dorsal root ganglionitis is a pathological condition.

He said that psychiatrists were baffled by her illness but that

 

“It lies more in the realms of neurology than psychiatry, in my opinion.”