We are delighted to announce that Massachusetts CFIDS/ME & FM Association will be sponsoring the first of our new series of lectures and public meetings. Dr. Anthony Komaroff will be the kick off speaker for us on Saturday, April 24, at 2 PM. The lecture will be held at the Milton Hospital, 199 Reedsdale Rd, Milton MA 02186.  Details will also be emailed to those on our Mailing List.

View/print/download event flier.

Please Pre-Register to reserve your space, as seating is limited.

On February 14th, 2010, the CDC announced that Dr. William Reeves, heretofore Director of the CFIDS Research Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) will be moving to the CDC's Office of Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services. There he will serve as Senior Advisor of the Mental Health Surveillance program. The CDC also announced on this same date that Dr. Elizabeth Unger will be taking over his newly vacated position. Unger received her bachelor's degree in chemistry from Lebanon Valley College in Annville, PA and her medical degree and doctorate in experimental pathology at The University of Chicago. She began her career at the CDC in 1994 as Team Leader of the Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Program. She has published close to one hundred medical articles on HPV-associated cancers, various research techniques, gene expression analysis, and numerous other virology studies. Her first role as co-author of several dozen CFIDS research articles came in 2000 with the investigation of the endogenous retroviral p15E in CFIDS, followed by a wide range of studies evaluating various features of the illness.

The announcement regarding the change in Reeve's position might have come rather abruptly, but his leadership of the CFIDS Research Program left a long trail of damaging and deceptive events, major scandals and disparaging views and remarks on CFIDS. Dr. Unger's extensive research background will hopefully widen the focus of CFIDS care and research.

On Thursday, Feb. 18, 2010, the CFIDS Association of America (CAA) conducted a webinar featuring Suzanne Vernon, PhD who provided their Association Research Program Update. Dr. Vernon has an extensive background in virology and infectious diseases, spending seventeen years in public health at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) before joining the CAA as their Scientific Director in 2007.

The CAA has just announced that a series of webinars are being planned for the third Thursday of each month.  Each event will feature top experts, on a variety of topics pertaining to CFIDS and these are open to the public.

Anyone interested in seeing these webinars (E-conferences) must sign up ahead of time. For more information about these programs and how to register, go to the CAA's 2010 Webinar Series webpage.  In addition, the PowerPoint slides used by Dr. Vernon during their most recent broadcast can now be downloaded from the same webpage.

The New Jersey CFS Association's (NJCFSA) Fall 2009 conference is now available on DVD. This two-disc set features guest speakers:

• Derek Enlander, MD, MRCS, LRCP, Treating CFS & FM by Targeting the Methylation Cycle
• Susan Levine, MD, FACP, The Diagnosis of CFS/ME with Some New Research Insights
• Jason Newfield, Esq., Professional Advocacy by Objective Documentation and Active Intervention on Behalf of CFS Patients

This set is for sale at $15 and details on how to place an order are shown under CFS News Flash on the NJCFSA website.