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e-3391 (Health)

E-petition
Initiated by Andrea Martell from Gloucester, Ontario

Original language of petition: English

Petition to the Government of Canada

Whereas:
  • There are 580,000 Myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) in Canada;
  • ME/CFS has double the disease burden of HIV (Mirin et al, 2020);
  • ME/CFS has lower quality of life than congestive heart failure (Komaroff, 1996);
  • ME/CFS has no diagnostic test, and no approved treatment;
  • ME/CFS is only funded $280,000 a year;
  • ME/CFS is developing in a subset of Long-Haul COVID-19 patients;
  • Statistics Canada has not collected objective data on the economic impact of ME/CFS patients;
  • The Economic Impact of ME/CFS is $51 Billion Dollars a year in the US (Jason et al, 2020);
  • 80% of ME/CFS patients are women; and
  • More Black, Indigenous, People of Colour will develop ME/CFS from long-haul COVID-19 because these populations have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19.
We, the undersigned, Citizens of Canada, call upon the Government of Canada to:
1. Set Aside $50 Million Dollars for ME/CFS biomedical research;
2. Commission the Chief Statistician of Canada, Anil Arora, to study the economic impact of ME/CFS according to the Canadian Consensus Criteria; and
3. Work with the provinces to set aside funding to rapidly accelerate a diagnostic test for ME/CFS so that patients can be rapidly diagnosed.
Open for signature
May 13, 2021, at 10:22 a.m. (EDT)
Closed for signature
September 10, 2021, at 10:22 a.m. (EDT)
Photo - Daniel Blaikie
Elmwood—Transcona
New Democratic Party Caucus
Manitoba