‘Travesty of justice’ on long Covid
Long Covid and ME/CFS (formerly known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome) are effectively the same illness, says a University of Otago researcher.
Emeritus professor Warren Tate leads a team at the university’s biochemistry department that has been examining the similarities in the molecular patterns of long Covid and ME/CFS patients.
He told RNZ these similarities were so great that it was “a travesty of justice” that people with the illnesses were treated differently.
“When you get a chronic inflammatory response, which is ongoing, that leads to a cascade of effects which involves the brain’s immune system and inflammatory system and the central nervous system and so then the brain starts to misfunction in terms of its regulation of body physiology.
“What we see with both ME/ CFS and long Covid, there’s about over 100 symptoms have been reported by patients and that reflects the fact that the brain and central nervous system are not controlling physiology properly. And amazingly, most of those symptoms are the same in both long Covid and ME/CFS. That’s why I see these are really just names given to the same response in the susceptible people where their immune inflammatory system becomes chronic.”
In 2022, 6400 people signed an Association of New Zealand Myalgic Encephalopathy Societies (ANZMES) petition to Parliament calling for ME/ CFS to be reclassified from a chronic illness to a disability, to help people access benefits and services.
Since then, nothing has happened. ANZMES president Fiona Charlton told RNZ the system was not working
Most of those symptoms are the same in both long Covid and ME/CFS. Emeritus professor Warren Tate
for people with ME/CFS. “ME/CFS fits the definition of disability, but not the criteria to access disability support services. And those same support services, while they are available under long-term conditions through the health system. People with ME do not fit the criteria to access them.”
While there were minor differences between how the United Nations, the World Health Organisation and the Government defined disability, Charlton said they all agreed it was “an impairment, be it physical, intellectual, or sensory, that lasts more than six months and limits the ability to carry out day-to-day activities”.
To access disability support services in New Zealand, the criteria stated that you had to have an intellectual impairment or be on the autism spectrum, Charlton said.
“So, people with ME don’t fit into that. But they do fit into the disability definition, where they have a physical sensory impairment, and for many people that’s lifelong, so obviously is lasting more than six months. And it significantly limits the ability to carry out activities.”
Charlton said a diagnosis of ME/ CFS required the person to have lost 50 per cent of their usual functionality. “A lot of us are not able to work, are not able to even leave the house, some are not even able to leave their beds.”