Advances in ME/CFS: Past, Present, and Future

The forerunner of what is today termed myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) was described by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1934. At the present time, we still do not know its cause and/or how to detect it by routine clinical laboratory tests. In consequence, the pathological nature of ME/CFS has been overlooked and the disease has been stigmatized by being mislabeled as psychosomatic or somatoform illness. Such misperceptions of the disease have led to insufficient research exploration of the disease and minimal to absent patient care. A 2015 Institute of Medicine report on the illness declared ME/CFS a disease affecting up to 2.5 million Americans and chastised the U.S. government for doing little to research the disease and to support its patients. Clinicians who currently treat this disease declare it to be more devastating than HIV/AIDS. A comparison of the histories of the two diseases, an examination of the current status of the two diseases, and a listing of the accomplishments that would be needed for ME/CFS to achieve the same level of treatment and care as currently experienced by patients with HIV/AIDS is provided.

ACTUARIAL METHODS OF MORTALITY ANALYSIS; ADAPTATION TO CHANGES IN THE AGE AND CAUSE PATTERN

‘The death rate is a fact; anything beyond this is an inference. In deciding whether the mortality is greater than it should b e .. .all the resources of statistical science have to be brought into requisition’ (Farr 1874). Introduction While the question of survival is not always uppermost in our minds it is never far away. The more provident amongst us, at least, are concerned to know their expectations of survival in order to take action both to reduce the chance of dying before their ‘time’ and to guard against the economic effects of this contingency. It is no accident that in this year we have celebrated not only the tercentenary of the publication of Graunt’s Observations but also the bicentenary of life assurance in this country. The history of mortality measurement reflects ever more refined approaches to the two objectives: (1) the study of biological and social factors in mortality as a basis for preventive medicine or social policy; (2) the close observation of mortality trends as a basis for economic provision for the future either in individual financial affairs or in social security schemes, or in administrative planning.