5000 Styrians affected

Med Uni launches first course on ME/CFS

Thomas Weber, anaesthetist and pain specialist, with students from Graz Medical University

(Bild: Pail Sepp)

5000 Styrians suffer from ME/CFS. Behind the combination of letters lies an insidious syndrome that robs those affected of any quality of life - some can no longer even get out of bed. The first course on the subject has now started at the Medical University of Graz.

Twelve medical students sit around the large table in the seminar room. Thomas Weber, an anesthetist with practices in Graz and St. Nikolai im Sausal, shows them videos of patients: Sandra (name changed) is in her late 20s and a teacher. She contracted Covid at the end of 2023. "Since then, I've had a fever every day, a sore throat, an increased heart rate of up to 160 even when walking, sleep disorders..." she says. "I'm threatened with disability and social isolation. We patients are left alone."

Thomas Weber shows a second video. All you can see is a dark room, a small green light, you can just make out a bed. The patient writes letters on the mattress with her index finger. Her parents try to guess what she wants to say. "The patient is 18 years old," says Weber.

Anaesthetist Thomas Weber specializes in ME/CFS

(Bild: Pail Sepp)

The more the disease progresses, the worse it gets
That's how bad ME/CFS, short for myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome, can get. "Some patients even have to be artificially fed." Under stress, symptoms such as whole-body pain, brain fog and sleep disorders can worsen dramatically - sometimes even forever.

5000 Styrians are currently thought to be affected, two thirds are women, most of them between the ages of 30 and 50. "In 80 percent of cases, ME/CFS is triggered by an infectious disease," says Weber. This can be corona, for example, but also EPV (Epstein-Barr virus, which triggers mononucleosis) or influenza.

Organized the course: Thomas Weber, Thomas Wegschneider and Vice-Rector Erwin Petek

(Bild: Pail Sepp)

Corona led to explosion
Since the pandemic, cases have exploded and the syndrome has received more public attention. The Medical University of Graz has now taken a pioneering step: A course on ME/CFS is being offered as preparation for the Clinical Practical Year. "If the students are made aware of it, then that's an important step," says Thomas Wegscheider from the Clinical Skills Center at Med Uni. Because if they can recognize the disease and get help quickly, ME/CFS can be prevented from worsening. However, there is no cure.

The need is huge. Around 15 new patients present to my practice every week. With timely treatment, you can regain a lot of quality of life.

Anästhesist Thomas Weber

Anaesthetist Weber, a pain expert who has started to specialize in this disease, knows how urgently a course is needed: "Of the twelve students, only three had ever heard of it. Most doctors don't know what ME/CFS is." Patients often have an odyssey of different doctors behind them and are wrongly diagnosed with a psychological condition. "The level of despair is very high, especially in severe cases."

There is already a center for the disease in Vienna - in the future there should be such a contact point in every federal state. Until then, says Weber, it is important to inform doctors and patients so that they can get help quickly.