Edit: Countries that are included in this thread in alphabetical order: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia I used the broadest definition of SEE here but there are overlaps with other regions and some of these are more cultural, not so much geographical groupings, so I'm open to changing the list of the countries belonging to this group if someone feels it is not appropriate. --- There is a sizeable ethnic Hungarian minority in Serbia too who have their own news sites in Hungarian, so I can read them - I get the Google alert notifications from those too. (And the same is true for Romania and Slovakia too - the latter is of course not in SEE.) So far I've got nothing on ME/CFS at all but even long covid is something that extremely rarely gets an article, at least in the Hungarian language media of these countries. Of course I can't really get the whole picture through this lens but at least we can get some snippets. These are the two items about long covid from Serbia I've seen this year. From January: A post-covid counseling program is being launched in pharmacies across Serbia Google translate from Hungarian: The other one is from today and is actually a very short news item I saw in Hungarian media today (so this is not from the minority media): Post-Covid surgeries have opened in Serbia Google translate from Hungarian: So it looks like to me that they were quite slow to deal with long covid and also mostly see it as primarily consisting of noticeable organ damage and mental health issues like depression. (The latter part is the same in Hungary and Slovakia too.)
http://www.europeanmealliance.org/index.shtml Linking EMEA (the European ME Alliance) here. They currently have pages with contact details for Croatia: ME Association in Croatia Serbia: Association of People with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Serbia Slovenia: Zebra Patients' Association
Linking the EMEA News thread: there's a webinar coming up focused on improving things in the Eastern European part of the world.
I saw this today on the Slovenian ME/CFS, fibro etc Facebook page. They will talk about the diseases on a regional radio station for ME/CFS Awareness Day. Google translate:
Here is the full programme of the upcoming webinar "ME/CFS and post Covid in the Balkans" organized by EMEA:
Article from Serbia. Politika seems to be one of the major news sites in the country. Chronic fatigue as a consequence of corona Not everything is factually correct in the article but the president of the country's ME/CFS association is one of the people talking about ME/CFS. Google translate:
Sounds interesting. Thanks for keeping us informed about the ME/CFS situation in eastern European countries @Wyva. Much appreciated.
This article was posted on Facebook by the Serbian ME/CFS association. An interview with prof Branislav Milanovic about the disease: Google translate: What is chronic fatigue syndrome and why it cannot be cured by rest
It was going pretty well until the treatment section. How he reconciles this sort of cure and improvement rate (which look very very much like the natural incidence and effect of ME/CFS): with the special multidisciplinary treatments that only Prof Milovanovic offers, I don't know. But two months to two years of treatments sounds very expensive.
Posted today on Facebook by the Serbian ME/CFS page I follow (translated by Google): This was all, but I guess we'll probably find out more soon. (Don't ask me what "crisis of consciousness" exactly is. FB, Google Translate and ChatGPT all translated it the same way.)
An interview with Dr. Vesna Ikonić Marinković, a pediatrician from Serbia, who has recently started suffering from ME/CFS, probably after a covid infection. Google translated version: CAN'T SLEEP, DO YOU FEEL CONSTANTLY TIRED? Doctor Vesna reveals that it is a serious DISEASE
From the interview with Dr Marinković: Even while acknowledging the lack of information, there is the offering of advice. I think we all do it, but I guess for many doctors it comes naturally. I thought it was interesting that this person noted having multiple serious infections while not having a raised CRP. So, the absence of an suitably increased CRP during an infection could perhaps be part of the disease? Googling that, a lack of a proportionate CRP during an infection, it is noted that this can occur in people with rheumatoid arthritis and lupus, but it isn't known why.
From the Facebook page of the Serbian ME/CFS patient org (Facebook translation): Ladies and gentlemen, We can proudly announce that our first basic goal has been met. On our initiative with the patronage of the Ministry of Health, and with the invaluable support of the organizer of the first International symposium that will be held on November 17, 2023. year. with the theme ,,Post covid syndrome and chronic fatigue syndrome'' is the National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases ,,Dedinje'' -Professor Dr. Milovan Bojić -Professor dr Branislav Milovanovic-Professor dr Nebojsa Tasic More details in the attachment: The details are in some posters shared, so hard for me to use Google Translate or similar. But anyway, there seems to be indeed some government involvement too, for example the Serbian Minister of Health is among the speakers.
Member @Mike Harley will be in Serbia soon raising funds for ME/CFS Research. Here's a pre-marathon interview with a person with ME/CFS in Serbia: Mike's EU Marathons
