EMEA News Q4 2024

The European ME Alliance (EMEA) and the European ME Research Group (EMERG), were pleased to present at the 2^nd International Symposium on Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Long Covid Syndrome on 22 November 2024, in Belgrade, Serbia [1].

An English version of the video of the meeting has been posted on You Tube [2].
In the video description section below the video one can click on the time next to the names of the presenters to go directly to their presentations.

The meeting was organised and hosted by Branislav Milovanovic, President of Section for Autonomic Nervous system of Serbian Medical Society, and member of EMERG.
The event was held at the world-renowned Institute for Cardiovascular Diseases "Dedinje" under the patronage of the Ministry of health, and with the support of several institutions and associations: The Association on Neurocardiology of Serbia, The Serbian Medical Society, and the Serbian Association of Patients with ME/CFS (SHUKS).

The program [3] brought together politicians, scientists, researchers, clinicians, as well as patient organisations, such as EMEA members from Serbia, Slovenia, and Croatia.
Participants shared the latest advances in research for ME and Long Covid, the challenges of clinical trials, creating centers of excellence, and the patients’ lived experience. It was an incredible and inspirational example of all stakeholders working together across borders to improve patient outcomes.
The event was attended by participants from 19 countries.

EMEA spoke about its advocacy efforts, citing its meeting with Dr. Hans Kluge, Regional Director of WHO Europe, [4] and its presentation at the meeting at the European Parliament of the MEP Interest Group on Brain Health and Neurological Conditions [5], raising awareness of the need to implement the 2020 European Parliament Resolution on ME in which governments agreed to increase research funding, alert everyone about the existence and symptoms of ME, and also provide specific training to healthcare professionals, politicians and authorities in general. We were very grateful to have this opportunity to raise awareness of EMEA’s activities and common issues faced by patients across Europe, as reported in our recent Pan-European survey [6].
A PDF of EMEA's presentation can be found here[7].

We encourage everyone to watch these excellent educational presentations [2], and to join us in our united efforts to advance biomedical research and support people suffering from this severely debilitating disease.

The meeting drew a great deal of media coverage, raising awareness all over the country about ME and the lead Serbia is taking to provide a model for other countries to support education about the illness.
The internet pages below allow for translation into English [8,9,10,11,12,13,14].