Fiona Hall MEP for the North East signs the Written Declaration on Fibromyalgia

The European Parliament, - having regard to Rule 116 of its Rules of Procedure,

A. whereas nearly 14 million persons in the EU and 1 to 3 % of the general population World-wide suffer from fibromyalgia, a debilitating condition resulting in chronic widespread pain,

B. whereas the WHO has recognised fibromyalgia as a disease since 1992, but it is still not coded in the official index of conditions in the EU, which excludes patients from formal diagnosis,

C. whereas patients with fibromyalgia make more GP visits, has more specialist referrals, are issued more sick notes and receive more in-patient services, and thus generate a considerable economic burden for Europe

D. whereas people with fibromyalgia struggle to lead full and independent lives, unless they have access to appropriate treatment and support,

1. Calls on the Commission and the Council to:

Develop a Community strategy on fibromyalgia in order to recognise this condition as a disease;

• help raise awareness of the condition and facilitate access to information for health professionals and patients, by supporting European and national awareness campaigns;
• encourage Member States to improve access to diagnosis and treatment;
• facilitate research on fibromyalgia through the work programmes of the EU 7th

Framework programme for research and future research programmes;

• facilitate the development of programmes for collecting data on fibromyalgia;

2. Instructs its President to forward this declaration, together with the names of the signatories, to the Council, the Commission and the parliaments of the Member States.

The following comment was received by Mrs H Edwards:-

Just to say that when we were facing a similar struggle to get Post-Polio Syndrome recognised in Britain (at a time when the W.H.O. and doctors worldwide had already established diagnostic criteria and were holding conferences) I came across several pieces of research pointing out that an unusually high proportion of fibromyalgia patients reported a history of Polio. From memory I believe from 30-50%.

I hope research will investigate post-viral issues, as some research states that had modern microscopes been available in the era of Polio outbreaks, many viruses then classified as different ( eg Echo, Cocksackie) would have been identified as mutations of the Polio family, in the way various Flu strains now are identified.

Locally we have shared work with Flares, a fibromyalgia group, and wish this EU project well. Its no fun having an ailment doctors will not acknowledge exists. Why can't scientists ever acknowledge maybe they don't yet know it all? Remember beefburgers and BSE?