Hamburg's CDU demands more support for long-covid patients!

Hamburg's CDU demands more support for long-covid patients!

in Hamburg is boiling when it comes to support for those affected by long-covid and chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS). The CDU parliamentary group has now started a new advance to improve the necessary help for these patients. According to NDR HINKT Hamburg clearly behind other federal countries, such as Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony. Special ambulances and a competence center that explicitly take care of long-covid patients and ME/CFS diseased are particularly challenged.

As early as December, the left had submitted a similar application to improve medical care. Now the social authority also recognizes the need for action and plans to expand help for those affected. The SPD and Greens coalition agreement also states that the support of long-covid patients plays a central role.

What is ME/CFS and Long-Covid?

ME/CFS is a chronic disease characterized by extreme exhaustion that occurs after minimal physical or mental activity. This information comes from a position paper from the Greens, which summarizes comprehensive knowledge of the disease and its treatment. Symptoms can occur according to various infectious diseases such as covid or without known causes. There are no generally detectable biomarkers for ME/CFS, which makes the diagnosis significantly more difficult. Greens Hamburg also reports that the prevalence of the disease before pandemic was around 0.15 % to 0.3 % and a doubling is expected after pandemic.

financial stress

A report by the ME/CFS Research Foundation shows that at the end of 2024 more than 1.5 million people will live with ME/CFS or Long Covid. The annual costs caused by both illnesses amount to a terrifying 63.1 billion euros, which corresponds to about 1.5 % of German gross domestic product. The recovery rate is low, only about 5 % of those affected achieve a complete recovery per year, many need long-term care. Fatigatio reports of the serious economic and social consequences of these two large -scale, but often unnoticed common diseases.