Write your Congressman and Senators!

Send an email to your Congressman and Senators asking that the U.S. adopt the Canadian Consensus Document for M.E./CFS.

To email your Senators, go to: http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm and click on the name of your state.

To email your Congressman (member of the House of Representatives), go to: http://www.house.gov/. On the top left hand side, put your zip code in the tiny little box and click "Go".
OR, if you know who your Representative is, you can go to: http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW_by_State.shtml Click on your state, and then on your representative.

The same websites also have FAX numbers if you can send one. The old-fashioned kind of letter just gets bogged down in security these days, so it's best to send an email or a FAX. The sample letter below is designed to fit on a single page if you want to FAX it - just copy it, paste it into a WORD file, and print it out. Or just copy it and paste it into an email. Use the method that works best for you.

Sample letter to cut and paste:

Dear Senator [your senator’s name], or
Dear Congressman [your Congressman’s name],

We need your help. We are asking Congress to directly address the needs of one million Americans who suffer from M.E./CFS, a highly debilitating and poorly understood illness, by directing the CDC, NIH, and other federal health agencies to adopt the existing Canadian Consensus Document for diagnosing and treating M.E./CFS.

Two decades after adopting the name “chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS),” CDC admits that only 15 percent of the one million U.S. patients afflicted with ME/CFS even have a diagnosis. On its website, CDC insists “there are no tests and there are no treatments.” In contrast, the Conadian Consensus Document contains a long list of tests and information about corresponding treatments. [See, for example, http://www.cfids-me.org/consensustests.html.]

[[ Put something personal here, for example:
I have suffered from ME/CFS for X years, or
I have taken care of a child/parent/spouse/friend with ME/CFS for X years.
It has been a terrible experience. There are few doctors who know anything about the disease, and every year there are fewer than the year before. [If you do not have a doctor knowledgeable about your disease, say so. If you have been unable to work because of the disease, say so. ]]

For 50 years, this disease has been known as Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (M.E.) overseas and in Canada. In 1988, faced with a number of cluster outbreaks, CDC renamed the disease “chronic fatigue syndrome.” WHO’s ICD-10, the most recent guideline for categorizing diseases internationally, codes M.E. and CFS together at G93.3 in the chapter on neurological diseases. After Canada adopted ICD-10, a committee was brought together with the cooperation of Health Canada to create the Canadian Consensus Document for diagnosing and treating M.E./CFS [Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, 2003]. It was written by researchers, clinicians, and university professors. The authors have collectively treated over 20,000 patients. The committee included Dan Peterson, who has worked with ME/CFS patients at Incline Village, NV, since 1985, and Nancy Klimas of Miami, president of IACFS/ME (International Association for CFS and M.E., a research-centered organization) and member of the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Advisory Committee (CFSAC) of DHHS.

Dr. Leonard Jason of DePaul University, also a member of the CFSAC and past president of IACFS/ME, demonstrated empirically that the Canadian Consensus Document was far more successful than CDC’s criteria, in identifying patients with serious physical symptoms and functional impairments [Journal of CFS, 2004].

The Overview of the Consensus Document is available online at:
http://www.mefmaction.net/Patients/Overviews/tabid/122/Default.aspx

Thank you for your help.

Your name
Your address

Now, go back and check that you got rid of all the ['s and ]'s !!! (I often forget) :-)
Send it on!
Then, if it's not too much trouble, let me know who you sent it to, so we can keep count. Email me at: Mary Schweitzer. If it is too much trouble, believe me, this is one place where everyone is understanding.

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