Journal of IiME Volume 6 Issue 1 (June 2012) Welcome to the Conference Invest in ME welcome you to the 7th International ME/CFS Conference in London. Inside This Issue 3 Welcome to the Conference 6 8 Let’s Do It for ME The New International Consensus Criteria for ME 13 19 20 23 29 99 The Drug and the Possibilities of Changing Everything Current Status of ME in Sweden Treatment of ME and FM with a Staphylococcus Vaccine Transcranial Sonography in the Diagnosis, Follow-up and Treatment of ME The Immunological Basis of ME Presenters at IiME Conference 107 Conference Agenda Invest in ME (UK Charity Nr. 1114035) PO BOX 561 Eastleigh SO50 0GQ Hampshire, UK Tel: 02380 251719 07759 349743 E-mail: info@investinme.org Web: www.investinme.org Disclaimer The views expressed in this Journal by contributors and others do not necessarily represent those of Invest in ME. No medical recommendations are given or implied. Patients with any illness are recommended to consult their personal physician at all times. Invest in ME (Charity Nr. 1114035) Invest in ME is a UK charity established in 2006 by ME patients and parents of children with ME (myalgic encephalomyelitis). The aim of the charity is to raise the profile of ME and awareness of the need for a strategy of biomedical research in order to treat and cure this disease. We hope to achieve this by educating healthcare professionals and the wider public about the true nature of ME. The conferences have formed a crucial part of this education. We recognise that the term CFS is used widely in many countries and the medical and research literature but we use the term ME and by that we refer to the WHO ICD10 classification G93.3. We have come a long way since we started these conferences in 2006. The first few years involved more politics than science. This year we are pleased to be able to show interest from the wider academic scientific disciplines. The trend started with the publication of XMRV and ME/CFS by Lombardi et al. in the Science magazine in 2009. This led to controversies but brought ME into the attention of new researchers not normally involved in ME. At this time we await results from the NIH funded study led by Professor Ian Lipkin from Columbia University in USA to confirm whether a gammaretrovirus is found in blinded blood samples. We are pleased to see that the interest in ME continues following on from the positive results of the Norwegian clinical phase II trials using Rituximab to treat ME/CFS patients. Last year we had the privilege of hearing pre-publication results from the principal investigators Professor Mella and Dr Fluge and we welcome them again this year to update us on their continuing research. The publication of this phase II clinical trial in Plos One in October 2011 led to much publicity in Norway. The Norwegian government apologised for the past treatment of ME patients which promoted ME as a behavioural illness to be treated with CBT (Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) and GET (Graded Exercise Therapy) despite patients having protested that such treatment made them worse. Prior to the 2011 conference IiME organised a researchers meeting – our “Corridor Conference” www.investinme.org Page 3 of 108
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