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Barbara Comerford, ESQ, was one of the speakers at the New Jersey CFIDS Association conference held on October 17, 2010. She has a practice specializing in disability law in the jurisdiction of New York and New Jersey.
Through her work, Ms. Comerford has become a specialist in ME/CFS disability and spoke to the issues ME/CFS patients need to know.
Previously, she has held a post as a board member of the NJ CFIDS Association, The CFIDS Association of America (CAA) and The American Association of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (AACFS) before it became the International Association of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (IACFS), and helped work on the physician’s manual that the NJ CFIDS Association published.
Although many patient organizations and some physicians refer to this illness as CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue and Immune Dysfunction Syndrome), the government’s official name is still Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS) and that is the name Social Security Administration (SSA) uses. Ms. Comerford concentrated her speech on the high points regarding Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Long-term Disability (LTD).
Notice about names
The Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association would like to clarify the use of the various acronyms for Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), Chronic Fatigue & Immune Dysfunction Syndrome (CFIDS) and Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) on this site. When we generate our own articles on the illness, we will refer to it as ME/CFS, the term now generally used in the United States. When we are reporting on someone else’s report, we will use the term they use. The National Institutes of Health (NIH) and other federal agencies, including the CDC, are currently using ME/CFS.
Massachusetts ME/CFS & FM Association changed its name in July, 2018, to reflect this consensus.