ME/CFS Australia (SA) Inc: What's in a name?

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ME/CFS AUSTRALIA (SA) INC

Registered Charity 698

Mailing address:
GPO Box 383,
Adelaide,
South Australia 5001

Office:
266 Port Road,
Hindmarsh,
South Australia 5007
Ph: (08) 8346 3237
('834 MECFS')

Office Hours:
Wednesdays, 10am-3pm

Support Line:
(Mondays and Thursdays,
10am-3pm)
Ph: (08) 8346 3237

SA country callers:
Ph: 1300 128 339
(local call)

FIBROMYALGIA HELP:
Contact
Fibromyalgia SA
at the
Arthritis Foundation of SA
118 Richmond Road,
Marleston 5033
Ph: (08) 8379 5711

ME/CFS Australia (SA) Inc supports the needs of sufferers of Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and related illnesses. We do this by providing services and information to members.

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Information and Support 2004 is an online appeal that aims to improve our Information and Support Line.

ME/CFS Australia (SA) Inc aims to keep members informed of the various research projects, diets, medications, therapies etc. All communication, both verbal and written, is merely to disseminate information and not to make recommendations or directives.

Unless otherwise stated, the views expressed on this Web site are not necessarily the official views of the Society or its Committee and are not simply an endorsement of products or services.

What’s in a name?

Friday 9 March 2007

Lois Ventura, from the National Alliance for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis, has written an article about the various names given to ME/CFS.

Society members may be aware that there is ongoing debate about the name of the illness. It would be true to say that most of us have always been uncomfortable with the word “fatigue” in the illness, and that relates to the treatment of people with ME/CFS in the US in particular in the 1980s.

The excellent book, Osler’s Web, tells this story in much more detail than we can here.

At the moment, there are people in North America campaigning to change the name to exclude any reference to fatigue. There are counter-arguments put to that, not least being the effort that has gone into trying to get public recognition of the illness as CFS. We don’t wish to start a pitched battle here about this topic, but we print this article as one instance of the argument being put about name-change. We do so with a declaration that we have no plans to change our name from the ME/CFS Society of SA.