International: World Health Organization News (news relevant to ME/CFS, Long Covid and related conditions)

Merged thread

on the WHO website:

What is chronic fatigue syndrome?
Currently there is no consensus agreement amongst medical professionals as to how chronic fatigue syndrome may be definitively diagnosed. It may include chronic, profound, disabling, and unexplained fatigue with coinciding symptoms such as sleep problems or post-exertional malaise.

In ICD-11, it is classified under Chapter 8: Diseases of the Nervous System, within the code 8E49 Postviral fatigue syndrome. During the revision of ICD-11, a number of proposals were received arguing for the re-positioning of chronic fatigue syndrome from its current position to the Chapter 01: Certain infectious or parasitic diseases.

Literature review and findings
In response to the proposals, WHO conducted an extensive literature review of research relating to chronic fatigue. The review found that there remains insufficient evidence to classify chronic fatigue as an infectious disease, at this time. The review also confirmed the lack of consensus on a reliable diagnostic pattern of symptoms, the continued debate about etiology and the absence of any uniform or reliable treatment. The only constant in the studies reviewed was the lead symptom of ‘fatigue’, persistent over time.

Decision
As a result of the review, there is no change to the current placement of the term in ICD-11 and the category ‘post-viral fatigue’ that is the indexing target for inclusion of chronic fatigue was retained within Diseases of the Nervous system, until such a time as evidence justifies an alternative.
Click to expand...

'chronic fatigue'?

https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Covid global health emergency is over, WHO says

The World Health Organisation (WHO) has declared that Covid-19 no longer represents a "global health emergency".

The statement represents a major step towards ending the pandemic and comes three years after it first declared its highest level of alert over the virus.

Officials said the virus' death rate had dropped from a peak of more than 100,000 people per week in January 2021 to just over 3,500 on 24 April.

The head of the WHO said at least seven million people died in the pandemic.

But Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said that the true figure was "likely" closer to 20 million deaths - nearly three times the official estimate - and he warned that the virus remained a significant threat.

"Yesterday, the Emergency Committee met for the 15th time and recommended to me that I declare an end to the public health emergency of international concern. I've accepted that advice. It's therefore with great hope that I declare COVID-19 over as a global health emergency," Dr Tedros said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-65499929

babfe19edda67105776870cb4a3bcecf.jpg
 
Last edited by a moderator:
Incidentally, in the numerous emails I exchanged over the years with the WHO's Dr Robert Jakob, he would frequently refer to the G93.3 and 8E49 categories as "chronic fatigue syndrome" and sometimes "chronic fatigue".

For a period of time, in the ICD-11 Alpha and Beta drafts, the proposal had been to replace "Postviral fatigue syndrome" with "Chronic fatigue syndrome" as the lead or "Title" term:


ICD-11 Alpha Draft, May 2010 (proposed change of lead term):

2icatnotegj92cfs.png



ICD-11 Alpha Draft:

Note the description texts below were later blanked for the Beta draft. There are still no description texts for any of the three 8E49 terms and no proposals have been publicly submitted from any quarter suggesting draft texts.

These texts below had been scraped from various US agency websites when the very earliest draft for ICD-11 was being put together:

2icatgj92cfsdef.png




ICD-11 Beta draft, July 2012 (no definition or description text from the launch of the Beta draft):

beta12.png



In early 2013, that entry above was inexplicable removed from the Beta draft.

The G93.3 legacy categories were not restored until March 2017, when they were returned to their original location within the draft, with PVFS restored as the lead or "Title" term. This was stated to be a placeholder location until after the WHO's scientific review had been completed.



It's not known who authored this WHO webpage re "CFS".

As I said in my post in the other thread, there is no evidence in the Proposal Mechanism to support this statement:

"During the revision of ICD-11, a number of proposals were received arguing for the re-positioning of chronic fatigue syndrome from its current position to the Chapter 01: Certain infectious or parasitic diseases."

In June 2015, I had a phone call with Dr Jakob and a colleague. In this call, he said that there had been discussions about the potential for secondary parenting the 8E49 categories under another chapter (though he was at pains to stress, not under the MH chapter). But he was very slippery and would not be drawn on which chapter had been discussed as a potential secondary parent or who had made these suggestions, and through what channel.
 
Last edited:
Dolphin said:
WHO: FAQ Chronic fatigue syndrome
Click to expand...
In brief - this content is noncommittal but, to me, it doesn't look terrible. It doesn't sound as though the treatment of CFS has changed.


What is chronic fatigue syndrome?
Currently there is no consensus agreement amongst medical professionals as to how chronic fatigue syndrome may be definitively diagnosed. It may include chronic, profound, disabling, and unexplained fatigue with coinciding symptoms such as sleep problems or post-exertional malaise.

In ICD-11, it is classified under Chapter 8: Diseases of the Nervous System, within the code 8E49 Postviral fatigue syndrome. During the revision of ICD-11, a number of proposals were received arguing for the re-positioning of chronic fatigue syndrome from its current position to the Chapter 01: Certain infectious or parasitic diseases.

Literature review and findings
In response to the proposals, WHO conducted an extensive literature review of research relating to chronic fatigue. The review found that there remains insufficient evidence to classify chronic fatigue as an infectious disease, at this time. The review also confirmed the lack of consensus on a reliable diagnostic pattern of symptoms, the continued debate about etiology and the absence of any uniform or reliable treatment. The only constant in the studies reviewed was the lead symptom of ‘fatigue’, persistent over time.

Decision
As a result of the review, there is no change to the current placement of the term in ICD-11 and the category ‘post-viral fatigue’ that is the indexing target for inclusion of chronic fatigue was retained within Diseases of the Nervous system, until such a time as evidence justifies an alternative.
Click to expand...
 
Dolphin said:
From: Dr. Marc-Alexander Fluks
Subject: WHO: FAQ Chronic fatigue syndrome

World Health Organization, december 18, 2023: Chronic fatigue syndrome,
https://www.who.int/standards/classifications/frequently-asked-questions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome
Click to expand...


Sly Saint posted this WHO page in April (up thread, in post #124) and I commented on it in post #131:

https://www.s4me.info/threads/inter...d-related-conditions.16426/page-7#post-506393

and also commented in the Updates on status of ICD-11 and changes to other classification and terminology systems thread, in June:

https://www.s4me.info/threads/updat...-terminology-systems.3912/page-35#post-477789
 
from a post elsewhere:
Maat said:
Safe and effective, not effective and safe(ish) = patient safety a WHO first priority (Do no harm) seen in practice this document.

Clinical management of COVID-19: Living guideline, 18 August 2023 (who.int) Check out pages 109 -127.

For example page 112 - rehabilitation post COVID-19

"Conditional recommendation for
An early referral of adults with post COVID-19 condition for appropriate rehabilitation services is suggested when experiencing symptoms and impairments that may be managed effectively and that have an impact on everyday functioning, when red flags for safe rehabilitation have been considered."

"An individualized assessment is suggested which preferably involves a physician to define underlying organ damage and to exclude red flag disorders prior to starting rehabilitation (357)(362)(138)(140)(380)(381)."

"Evidence to Decision
Certainty of Evidence

A systematic scoping review for the model of rehabilitation care including referral principles (Annex 8) only identified papers that have been based on expert evidence and no GRADE certainty of evidence assessment has been applied. The recommendation is based on expert evidence."
The ethics on page 127 particularly worthy of note.
Click to expand...
 
from a post elsewhere, also about the Clinical Management of Covid-19: Living Guideline document
a warning against GET
Nightsong said:
May be the "clinical management of COVID-19 - living guideline", p115 of the PDF: "Interventions for rehabilitation based on fixed incremental increases in the time spent being physically active or graded exercise, should not be offered to people experiencing PESE (150)":

Link: https://app.magicapp.org/#/guideline/j1WBYn/rec/LA6lVY
PDF: https://files.magicapp.org/guidelin...06b5694bf575/published_guideline_6915-7_0.pdf
Click to expand...
 
World Health Organization (WHO) has introduced an online platform called MeDevIS (Medical Devices Information System), the first global open access clearing house for information on medical devices. It is designed to support governments, regulators and users in their decision-making on selection, procurement and use of medical devices for diagnostics, testing and treatment of diseases and health conditions.

The MeDevIS platform includes 2301 types of medical devices used for a broad-ranging health issues, including reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, noncommunicable diseases such as cancer, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes as well as infectious diseases such as COVID-19.

The number of medical technologies used in health care is growing, as is their complexity, which can make it challenging for health care practitioners and patients to navigate. We aim to provide a one stop shop of international information, which can be invaluable for those making decisions on life-saving medical technologies, especially in resource-limited settings, and to improve access".

Dr. Yukiko Nakatani, WHO Assistant Director-General for Access to Medicines and Health Products

There are over 10 000 different medical devices that are being used for protection, prevention, diagnostics, treatment or rehabilitation of health issues globally. These include multiple simple and complex medical technologies ranging from pulse oximeters, digital thermometers, single-use syringes and medical masks to various diagnostic laboratory tests and other medical equipment including electrocardiograms, endoscopes, all imaging radiology technologies, and technologies used for treatments such as hemodialysis units and defibrillators, implantable prothesis, cardiac stents and complex radiotherapy equipment.
Click to expand...

MeDevIS platform announced to boost access to medical technologies and devices (who.int)
 
I'm not implying anything, but I had a cringe moment when I saw Biden coughing into his hands repeatedly and shaking hands with everyone at the G20 Summit in Rio.

The director-general of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, is “back to work” following an overnight stay in a Rio hospital during his trip to the G20 summit, the WHO chief said Thursday.

The reason for the hospital visit, first reported by the Brazilian paper O Globo, was not disclosed in a statement by the hospital, although media reports cited symptoms of hypertension and labyrinthitis (inner ear infection causing vertigo) as causes for the hospitalization.

“The patient spent the night under observation, underwent all the necessary examinations, which found clinical indicators with no signs of infection,” said Samaritano Hospital, located in a western district of Rio
LINK
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom