Association News
Activities and opportunities from The CFIDS Association of America

It's annual report time of year
If you donated more than $50 to the Association (in addition to your membership fee), watch your mailbox over the next month or so for your copy of The CFIDS Association's 1999 Annual Report, which will update you on the progress the Association has made in accelerating the fight against CFIDS.

The report details the actions the Association has taken and acknowledges the role of those who have made a financial contribution to support our work. The Annual Report is available at no charge to all who ask and will be posted on the Association's web site (www.cfids.org) this summer.

Association attends definition workshop
The CDC convened a closed-door workshop April 30 through May 3 in Pine Mountain, Ga., to "critically evaluate published and unpublished information from population-based and clinical studies that impact on the CFS case definition."

It was not expected that a new case definition would emerge from this meeting, as participants were asked to share their views about whether additional study should be done before work proceeds with a revision of the case definition. Given the far-reaching consequences of changing the definition for research, clinical diagnosis and disability benefits, the Association supported the cautious pace.

CFIDS Association President/ CEO Kim Kenney was asked to participate in this meeting to discuss the impact of the case definition on educating health care providers about CFS. For a list of other individuals asked to participate, visit the CDC's web site at www.cdc.gov and search for CFS. A report on this meeting will be published in an upcoming issue of The CFIDS Chronicle.