EMEA News Q1 2026

A New Global Call for Recognition

15 March marks International Long COVID Awareness Day, an annual event founded by patient advocates and their allies. Its purpose is clear: to spotlight the profound effects of Long COVID, push for greater research investment, circulate vital resources, and draw attention to the debilitating symptoms still affecting millions across the world.

While Long COVID emerged only recently with the COVID-19 pandemic, this dedicated day underscores how new health challenges demand swift, organised visibility – much like other misunderstood conditions before them.
Myalgic encephalomyelitis is one such disease.

Echoes of the ME Experience

The need for a Long COVID Awareness Day mirrors the long struggle of myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) patients. ME, a chronic illness officially recognised for decades, but which has faced years of neglect and mischaracterisation, mistreatment, and where misinformation has been allowed to perpetuate through healthcare systems. The results of this are widespread ignorance, deleterious treatments being put forward and a continual stigma that permeates societies. Such a situation has long since prompted the establishment of International ME Awareness Day on 12 May.

Both conditions can share striking parallels: post-infectious onset, profound fatigue, post-exertional malaise, cognitive difficulties, and multi-system involvement that defies simple explanation.
Just as ME advocates have fought for legitimacy through dedicated awareness efforts over several decades, Long COVID patients are also building momentum to ensure their reality is neither dismissed nor forgotten.
This convergence reminds us that ignoring one disease while focusing on others risks missing shared biological insights. COVID's and Long COVID's initial funding surge has revealed overlapping pathomechanisms with ME, prompting pragmatic resource-sharing in research.

EMEA's Push for Progress

The European ME Alliance (EMEA) welcomes this observance as a catalyst for broader action that might address the defects in policies that have historically caused harm for people with ME.
In recent years, EMEA has intensified advocacy across Europe, pressing governments and research bodies to prioritise ME alongside other post-infection conditions.

EMEA has engaged with WHO and EU health authorities, and supported collaborative research frameworks that create an infrastructure for further expansion and development. while assisting in research for biomarker discovery and clinical trials creation.
Our members develop events such as #BRMEC15 where European and international collaboration further bridges these fields, fostering data-sharing and expertise exchange.

Looking ahead, EMEA can finally see the results from almost two decades of effort with promising developments with the Dutch government research programme , the Swiss project and the recently announced Decade of Post-infectious disease research in Germany.