MAY BE REPOSTED
DAILY MAIL - UK
27 December 2007
LETTERS PAGE HEADLINE WITH COLOUR PHOTOGRAPH
'Don't just dismiss this link with ME and polio''
Victoria Lambert's appreciation of poliomyelitis and post-polio syndrome
(Good Health) should have included the fact that ME and polio are almost certainly sister diseases, caused by the same family of viruses. Ten years
ago, in my book ME: The New Plague, I argued that ME was a persistent viral
infection related to poliomyelitis. When my study of ME in schools was
published in the Journal of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, it hit the headlines
because it revealed that ME was the biggest cause of long-term sickness
[absence] in children and staff. On his TV show on the subject, Adam Boulton
described ME as 'attacking schoolchildren now'. Some children are bedridden
or in wheelchairs, others can't swallow and have to be fed by tube. Sounds
familiar? It should do. Yet the British scientists' lab work that
underpinned my work was generally dismissed. This - tragically - led to
misunderstandings and even to the mistreatment of children and young people
in the UK, which still persists today. We now require proper science about
the link between ME and polio, not the psychobabble we've had to put up wtih for the past ten years. We must stand up for these genuinely sick children.
The reason no one believed ME was a persistent viral infection related to poliomyelitis is outlined at www.tymestrust.org/tymesmagazine.htm along with
news of the latest developments.
JANE COLBY
The Young ME Sufferers Trust, Stock, Essex
[Note: this letter was slightly edited for publication; in the original I
referred to myself as 'co-author' of the study in the Journal of CFS, since
Dr Betty Dowsett and I carried it out together. I have also inserted the
word 'absence' in square brackets; it was omiitted in the paper, which
changes the meaning.]
---
Jane Colby
Executive Director
The Young ME Sufferers Trust
PO Box 4347
Stock Ingatestone
Essex CM4 9TE
Tel 0845 003 9002
* * *
For those too debilitated to read the entire list of publications on the TymesTrust Magazine page (link above) the Autumn 2003 Tymes Magazine has the initial article on the ME-polio connection.
Dr. Richard Bruno observes "we're finding the same sorts of things in ME as in polio ... if it quacks like a duck and it walks like a duck ... what else could it be? It's not possession by demonic forces."
<AHREF="HTTP: www.tymestrust.org?>CFS, CFS/ME, ME/CFS, polio, myalgic encephalomyelitis, chronic fatigue syndrome
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