---

Dept of Health

Answer

Dr. Cable: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what targets he has to increase awareness of myalgic encephalomyelitis; and if he will make a statement; [113044] (2) if he will make a statement on regional variations in the incidence of myalgic encephalomyelitis. [113045] Jacqui Smith: We helped raise awareness of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), which is also known as myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), by publishing the report of the Independent Working Group in January 2002. In October 2002, we made the national health service aware, through the "Chief Executive's Bulletin" and the "GP Bulletin", of the guidance produced by Action for ME called "Guidance on the Management of CFS/ ME". On 12 May 2003, I announced that £8.5 million would be made available for services specifically designed for people with CFS/ME. The funding will be used to develop services for people with CFS/ME. In July, health organisations will be invited to bid for development funds to set up centres of expertise to develop clinical care, support clinical research and expand education and training programmes for health care professionals and to establish satellite community multidisciplinary teams. The first phase of development will commence in April 2004. Information on the prevalence of individual conditions is not collected centrally. The report of the independent CFS/ME working group, published in January 2002, estimated a population prevalence of around 0.2-0.4 per cent. in adults and around 0.07 per cent. in children. They made no analysis of regional variations.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

405 c610W;405 c608W; 113044;113045

Session

2002-03

Subjects

ME/CFS Health education

Contains statistics

Yes

Link

View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk