STAT
Inside a push to create an NIH office for post-infection chronic illness
When the White House released President Biden’s 2025 budget requests this week, funding for biomedical research was stagnant. The more conservative wishlist from the president acknowledges a reduced appetite in Congress for non-defense government spending.
But some disease groups, along with their research allies, are undeterred. A growing number are calling for increased research funding and the creation of a new body at the National Institutes of Health to study chronic conditions that spring from infections.
The pitch comes on the heels of a major jump in awareness of post-infection chronic conditions, like long Covid, during the pandemic. And while it could go nowhere — several bureaucratic hoops must be jumped — the proposal concretizes some of the concerns and demands of tens of thousands of Americans who have little-understood, little-investigated conditions.
This group of diseases has by and large received little attention or funding in decades past — save for long Covid, which is relatively well-heeled at the moment through the RECOVER trial. Other conditions, including chronic Lyme, mast cell activation syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, POTS, and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS, have mostly been ignored. And although not all are thought to be caused by infections, many share symptoms (notably, life-altering fatigue) and lack effective treatments, advocates say.
On Friday, the Federation of American Scientists released a white paper calling for the creation of the new NIH office. The authors cite economic, practical and moral justifications, arguing that these conditions affect millions of Americans in total, but don’t fit neatly into the existing structure, which is often siloed by organ or disease process.
...Read further at:
https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/15/nih-office-for-chronic-disease-post-infections-long-covid/
Inside a push to create an NIH office for post-infection chronic illness
When the White House released President Biden’s 2025 budget requests this week, funding for biomedical research was stagnant. The more conservative wishlist from the president acknowledges a reduced appetite in Congress for non-defense government spending.
But some disease groups, along with their research allies, are undeterred. A growing number are calling for increased research funding and the creation of a new body at the National Institutes of Health to study chronic conditions that spring from infections.
The pitch comes on the heels of a major jump in awareness of post-infection chronic conditions, like long Covid, during the pandemic. And while it could go nowhere — several bureaucratic hoops must be jumped — the proposal concretizes some of the concerns and demands of tens of thousands of Americans who have little-understood, little-investigated conditions.
This group of diseases has by and large received little attention or funding in decades past — save for long Covid, which is relatively well-heeled at the moment through the RECOVER trial. Other conditions, including chronic Lyme, mast cell activation syndrome, Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, POTS, and myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, or ME/CFS, have mostly been ignored. And although not all are thought to be caused by infections, many share symptoms (notably, life-altering fatigue) and lack effective treatments, advocates say.
On Friday, the Federation of American Scientists released a white paper calling for the creation of the new NIH office. The authors cite economic, practical and moral justifications, arguing that these conditions affect millions of Americans in total, but don’t fit neatly into the existing structure, which is often siloed by organ or disease process.
...Read further at:
https://www.statnews.com/2024/03/15/nih-office-for-chronic-disease-post-infections-long-covid/
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