Germany's "National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases"

D

DHagen

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Major announcement out of Germany:

National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases / 500 million Euro pledged over next decade

Original: https://www.bmftr.bund.de/SharedDoc...onale-dekade-postinfektiöse-erkrankungen.html

Google translation:
National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases

News November 13, 2025

Federal Research Minister Bär: "We are opening a new chapter in the research of these diseases."

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Post-infectious diseases such as Long COVID or ME/CFS represent an immense burden for those affected and their families. Effective treatment options are still lacking. To change this, Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär, together with partners in health research, will launch the National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases. The aim is to decipher causes and mechanisms and to develop new treatment options.

Half a billion euros for a new chapter of research

The National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases runs from 2026 to 2036 and is to be funded with a total of 500 million euros.

Following the budget committee's reconciliation meeting on November 13, 2025, Federal Research Minister Dorothee Bär emphasized: "With the National Decade, we are opening a new chapter in research on these diseases. We need a long-term strategy to better understand the causes and mechanisms of post-infectious diseases and to sustainably improve the care of those affected."

The Minister underlined the urgency of this decade: "From many conversations, I know what a great burden these diseases represent for those affected and their families. The need for research is enormous: There are still no simple solutions or therapies for ME/CFS and post-viral autoimmune diseases, and previous scientific studies demonstrate the complexity of the disease mechanisms."

A milestone for those affected

Worldwide, there are currently no sufficiently evidence-based therapeutic approaches for the effective and curative treatment of post-infectious diseases. Current therapies are limited to the treatment of symptoms

Understanding disease mechanisms is key: Only when the causes and biological processes of diseases are better understood can targeted new diagnostic and therapeutic methods be developed. The National Decade will now expand and anchor research in the long term – a crucial step in the fight against post-infectious diseases.
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Spiegel article w/ comments from Ex-Gesundheitsminister Lauterbach (paywalled):
https://www.spiegel.de/politik/karl...weitet-a-878a5ea4-b8cb-45d9-8447-667bf02a4a43

Per Lauterbach: There will be 15 million Euro for research in 2026, increasing to 50 million/year for the next decade. He notes that this could establish Germany as a leader in the field since the US has essentially stopped research and states that the goal should be to have a cure by the mid-2030s at the latest.
 
Basically a brief summary of the Spiegel article but non-paywalled:

https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutsch...gierung-forschung-chronisches-fatique-syndrom

English (from Google):

The German government wants to increase funding for research into ME/CFS​

The number of long-term COVID and ME/CFS cases has increased sharply since the pandemic. Therefore, €500 million is to be invested in research by 2036.

November 14, 2025, 0:10 AM Source: DIE ZEIT, dpa, jsp

The German government plans to invest more heavily in research over the next ten years into the long-term effects of infections such as ME/CFS and Long Covid-19. "We need a long-term strategy to better understand the causes and mechanisms of post-infectious diseases and to sustainably improve the care of those affected," said Research Minister Dorothee Bär (CSU). Around €500 million will be made available over ten years, starting in 2026, as part of the initiative. The ministry has dubbed this timeframe the National Decade Against Post-Infectious Diseases.

ME/CFS stands for Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and is a serious illness that can occur particularly after an infection – for example, a COVID-19 infection. It is the most severe form of Long COVID . Those affected feel extremely and persistently exhausted and may suffer from many other symptoms such as muscle pain, rapid heartbeat, sensitivity to light and sound, or difficulty finding words and speaking. In severe cases, ME/CFS leads to complete dependency on care or being bedridden.

A cure should be possible by the mid-2030s.​


In a policy paper from the coalition, which has been obtained by Der Spiegel , former Health Minister Karl Lauterbach (SPD) and CDU member of parliament Stephan Albani describe the illnesses as "one of the greatest public health challenges of the 21st century." In Germany, more than 1.5 million people are affected, primarily due to the many cases following the coronavirus pandemic .

According to Lauterbach, €15 million is earmarked in the federal budget for 2026 for research into these diseases. "From 2027 to 2036, we will spend €50 million annually," Spiegel quotes Lauterbach as saying. This could make Germany a pioneer in the fight against Long Covid and ME/CFS , he says. The goal must be to research the diagnosis and treatment of these diseases to such an extent that they can be cured by the mid-2030s at the latest.
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Jesse said:
Great news! That is a lot of money... I hope they use it well. It would be nice if they could miss a few millions for SequenceME and Daratumumab haha.
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Well, I am assuming that Charité will benefit and Scheibenbogen reported they have their own anti-CD38 trial for planned for 2026 (I can't recall if it is known whether this is Dara or another drug), so hopefully that side will be covered at least.

[Edited to add that I am not certain which anti-CD38 mAb Charité plans to trial]
 
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Jesse said:
Oh I thought they were looking at a different mAb. That's great.
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I realized shortly after posting that I might be mis-remembering based on some of her enthusiastic comments about the Norwegian trial elsewhere. The timeline in the YouTube video where this was referenced doesn't specify which mAb they'll be looking at, so I am not sure this is known. Sorry for the confusion. If someone with a better memory or more information wants to step it, that would be wonderful!
 
butter. said:
this is more than twice of the annual NIH budget
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I might be misunderstanding something, but doesn't NIH have a budget of around $1.5 billion for long COVID over about a decade?

https://thesicktimes.org/2024/12/12...ng-covid-research-funding-new-budget-details/
The U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH) has announced further funding for its flagship Long COVID research program, called RECOVER, as well as new details about the program’s budget through 2029. RECOVER will receive an additional $147 million, building on $515 million allocated earlier this year and the original $1.15 billion funded by Congress in 2021.
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forestglip said:
I might be misunderstanding something, but doesn't NIH have a budget of around $1.5 billion for long COVID over about a decade?

https://thesicktimes.org/2024/12/12...ng-covid-research-funding-new-budget-details/
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My understanding is that most if not all of the initial fund is already gone and obviously did not deliver much.

From the same SickTimes article you linked:
Of its initial $1.15 billion in funding, more than half went to observational studies and only 15% (about $172.7 million) went to clinical trials, despite insistence from advocates that trials were vital to find treatments that may alleviate people’s debilitating symptoms.
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In 2024, the NIH allocated an additional $662 million for Long Covid to be dispersed from 2025-9 (https://recovercovid.org/funding). I do not think anyone knows the current status of that money. Many of the projects already promised funding were cancelled, then some reinstated, though I am not sure if anyone has actually received anything. Other with more information can hopefully chime in, but the short of it is that you shouldn't expect anything from the US. Or at least nothing good.

From back in March:
https://cen.acs.org/policy/research-funding/NIH-cancels-RECOVER-grants-long/103/web/2025/03
According to Megan Fitzgerald, a researcher and advocate who works closely with RECOVER-funded researchers and who has long COVID herself, all grants for pathobiology studies that RECOVER funded in 2022 and 2023 were canceled this week. That amounts to 45 different studies that were designed to uncover the biological mechanisms that may drive various manifestations of long COVID.
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“The COVID-19 pandemic is over, and HHS will no longer waste billions of taxpayer dollars responding to a non-existent pandemic that Americans moved on from years ago,” HHS spokesperson Emily Hilliard says in an email to C&EN, invoking the Make America Healthy Again, or MAHA, movement spearheaded by HHS secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
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ME/CFS Science Blog said:
Great news!

I wonder what they mean with post-infectious disease: is it ME/CFS and Long Covid, or other diseases as well?
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It’s not explicitly explained in neither the Spiegel nor the Zeit article.
However, this is what Wikipedia says:
Postakute Infektionssyndrome sind:
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There’s also an english Wikipedia page.
 
ME/CFS Science Blog said:
Great news!

I wonder what they mean with post-infectious disease: is it ME/CFS and Long Covid, or other diseases as well?
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My sense is that Lauterbach, who sits on the Gesundheitsausschuss and is on very good terms with the German Minister of Health (they are in a coalition), genuinely wants to push ME/CFS. But turning that intention into actual policy and progress will be a struggle.

He called it the 'biggest ME/CFS initiative in the world' today. That's actually his wording more or less.
 
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