Advocacy Updates

Advocacy Alert: 1/29/2010

Alert: Change of leadership announced for CDC's CFS Research Program

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that Dr. William C. Reeves, head of the agency's CFS Research Program, will be taking a new position within the agency effective Feb. 14, 2010 and that he will no longer lead the agency's CFS research. Dr. Elizabeth Unger will serve as acting chief of the Chronic Viral Diseases Branch, the unit within CDC that houses the CFS Research Program. On Feb. 14, Dr. Reeves will begin an assignment as Senior Advisor for Mental Health Surveillance in the Public Health Surveillance Program Office within the CDC's Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services.

The CFIDS Association of America, other organizations and advocates have vocally supported new program leadership to effect a more robust research effort at CDC. This staffing change has the potential to significantly advance CFS research beyond the agency's intramural program and to seize scientific momentum generated by recent discoveries. We are fully dedicated to making rapid progress in this new era of collaboration and discovery in CFS research.

K. Kimberly McCleary
President & CEO
The CFIDS Association of America