Written question asked by Paul Rowen (Liberal Democrat) on Monday, 2 November 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Thursday, 5 November 2009. It was answered by Ann Keen (Labour) on Thursday, 5 November 2009 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

Question: (2) what recent discussions his Department has had with officials from myalgic encephalomyelitis charities and campaign groups on proposals to make myalgic encephalomyelitis a notifiable illness in schools.

Answer: We have no plans to make chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) a notifiable illness in schools.Since 2007, the Department has received a large number of requests from many organisations, including CFS/ME stakeholders, campaigning for their disease or condition to be recognised as a notifiable disease. The Department's position remains that this classification should be used only for a relatively small number of infectious diseases where monitoring is required to identify sources of infection, and not as a means for collecting statistical information on the prevalence of specific conditions.

Secondary information