CDC/Medscape - Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: It's Real, and We Can Do Better Elizabeth Unger

Cheshire

Cheshire

Senior Member (Voting Rights)
Video published today

My name is Dr Elizabeth Unger and I am chief of CDC's Chronic Viral Diseases Branch, which houses the myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) program.

An estimated 836,000 to 2.5 million Americans suffer from ME/CFS, a serious, long-term illness that can severely impair the ability of those affected to live normal lives. But the majority of those affected are not diagnosed, and many struggle with symptoms for years before receiving a diagnosis.

The absence of a definitive diagnostic test contributes to this problem. In addition, most medical schools in the United States do not include ME/CFS in their physician training. Less than one third of medical school curricula and less than half of medical textbooks in the United States address ME/CFS, so many healthcare providers need more information about this condition.
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https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/908622?src=rss
 
Medfeb said:
its generally pretty good although I wish they would explicitly discredit CBT and GET as inappropriate
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Yes I agree. Even if they didn't dare to criticize GET/CBT openly, there could have been a warning that ME/CFS patients do not tolerate standard exercise regimes, like the CDC do on their website.

But overall, this seems like a very useful video and message.
 
Unger said:
"Helping patients achieve relief from symptoms and improved quality of life are the main goals of treatment."
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Every doctor needs to understand this. The days of abandoning ME/CFS patients without care, telling them exercise more, or relegating them to psychiatry are over. Doctors must provide symptomatic relief for the worst symptoms and try to improve patient quality of life.
 
Medfeb said:
Merge thread

CDC released a video about ME/CFS on Medscape today. The video features Dr. Beth Unger and is directed at doctors, encouraging them that they can appropriately diagnose and care for people with ME/CFS.

IMO, its generally pretty good although I wish they would explicitly discredit CBT and GET as inappropriate
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This would mean acknowledging they got it wrong and that PACE was wrong, and they have made it clear I think they won't do that. As a public health professional, I find that pretty disgraceful for the country's lead public health agency.
 
dave30th said:
This would mean acknowledging they got it wrong and that PACE was wrong, and they have made it clear I think they won't do that. As a public health professional, I find that pretty disgraceful for the country's lead public health agency.
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For some reason I think they are afraid people won't trust them if they say they were wrong.

What they don't seem to realize is that people will trust them more if they are honest about what went wrong. Sweeping it under the rug is not the way to gain trust.
 
WillowJ said:
For some reason I think they are afraid people won't trust them if they say they were wrong.

What they don't seem to realize is that people will trust them more if they are honest about what went wrong. Sweeping it under the rug is not the way to gain trust.
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I think from their POV they believe that they can manipulate most people's trust and that they are no wrong or to put it another way I expect they believe they are mostly right.
 
Job advert for CDC

Health Scientist
Department of Health And Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Duties
Summary
Serve as a senior advisor on public health research, evaluation, and policy planning, including prevention, as applied to the diseases and illnesses that are under the jurisdiction of the Branch. Will serve as a subject matter expert and deputy to the branch chief guiding all programmatic activities of the branch. Major focus of the incumbent will be to develop a strategic plan encompassing myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and human papillomavirus (HPV) programs.
Responsibilities
  • Develop policy and objectives, appraising programs, and initiating requirements for health science studies.
  • Serve as advisor for the planning, design, implementation, and analysis of projects.
  • Plan work to be accomplished by subordinates, set and adjust short-term priorities, and prepare schedules for completion of work, when necessary.
  • Assign work to subordinates based on priorities, considering difficulty and requirements of assignments as well as the capabilities of employees
  • Give advice, counsel, or instruction to employees on both work and administrative matters.
Open & closing dates
  • 07/30/2019 to 08/05/2019
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/540690800#agency-modal-trigger
 
Sly Saint said:
Job advert for CDC

Health Scientist
Department of Health And Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Duties
Summary
Serve as a senior advisor on public health research, evaluation, and policy planning, including prevention, as applied to the diseases and illnesses that are under the jurisdiction of the Branch. Will serve as a subject matter expert and deputy to the branch chief guiding all programmatic activities of the branch. Major focus of the incumbent will be to develop a strategic plan encompassing myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and human papillomavirus (HPV) programs.
Responsibilities
  • Develop policy and objectives, appraising programs, and initiating requirements for health science studies.
  • Serve as advisor for the planning, design, implementation, and analysis of projects.
  • Plan work to be accomplished by subordinates, set and adjust short-term priorities, and prepare schedules for completion of work, when necessary.
  • Assign work to subordinates based on priorities, considering difficulty and requirements of assignments as well as the capabilities of employees
  • Give advice, counsel, or instruction to employees on both work and administrative matters.
Open & closing dates
  • 07/30/2019 to 08/05/2019
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/540690800#agency-modal-trigger
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Thanks @Sly Saint for posting this!
 
Sly Saint said:
Job advert for CDC

Health Scientist
Department of Health And Human Services
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Duties
Summary
Serve as a senior advisor on public health research, evaluation, and policy planning, including prevention, as applied to the diseases and illnesses that are under the jurisdiction of the Branch. Will serve as a subject matter expert and deputy to the branch chief guiding all programmatic activities of the branch. Major focus of the incumbent will be to develop a strategic plan encompassing myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and human papillomavirus (HPV) programs.
Responsibilities
  • Develop policy and objectives, appraising programs, and initiating requirements for health science studies.
  • Serve as advisor for the planning, design, implementation, and analysis of projects.
  • Plan work to be accomplished by subordinates, set and adjust short-term priorities, and prepare schedules for completion of work, when necessary.
  • Assign work to subordinates based on priorities, considering difficulty and requirements of assignments as well as the capabilities of employees
  • Give advice, counsel, or instruction to employees on both work and administrative matters.
Open & closing dates
  • 07/30/2019 to 08/05/2019
https://www.usajobs.gov/GetJob/ViewDetails/540690800#agency-modal-trigger
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How big of a job is this? Unger works on HPV and ME/CFS: could she be retiring or moving elsewhere?
 
Sly Saint said:
develop a strategic plan
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This better be real and sincere. We needed that 50 years ago but now is also a good time for this.

Aimless wandering is rarely a good strategy. Not surprising that aimless wandering has yielded diddly squat.
 
rvallee said:
This better be real and sincere. We needed that 50 years ago but now is also a good time for this.

Aimless wandering is rarely a good strategy. Not surprising that aimless wandering has yielded diddly squat.
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One question is why does this posting talk about a strategic plan encompassing both ME and HPV?
Just because (as @Dolphin says) Unger has worked on both doesn't mean there's a solid connection between them - and certainly CDC hasn't been spending a lot of time and effort looking at that. It also wouldn't have anything to do with children getting ME so even less of a connection.
Much more is known about HPV than ME so tying the 2 together in a strategic plan is baffling to me. (Though perhaps I'm just easily baffled.)
 
my best guess is that @Dolphin made a good guess and Dr. Unger is retiring or moving on.

If they need to replace a specific person, they might think they need someone to do all the stuff she was doing.

Otherwise I can't think of any reason to lump ME and HPV together.
 
Denise said:
One question is why does this posting talk about a strategic plan encompassing both ME and HPV?
Just because (as @Dolphin says) Unger has worked on both doesn't mean there's a solid connection between them - and certainly CDC hasn't been spending a lot of time and effort looking at that. It also wouldn't have anything to do with children getting ME so even less of a connection.
Much more is known about HPV than ME so tying the 2 together in a strategic plan is baffling to me. (Though perhaps I'm just easily baffled.)
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Uh. I assume they're two different projects but CDC leadership seems to think the skills required for both align enough to benefit from being approached similarly? Maybe? The overlap between the two is otherwise not that obvious and definitely a bit baffling unless they are separate but simply assumed to benefit from a similar skillset.
 
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