Greece
I interviewed Lefteris, an ME patient for over 20 years who lives in Athens about what it's like to have the illness in Greece. Here's a summary of what he told me....
March 2016
I interviewed Lefteris, an ME patient for over 20 years who lives in Athens about what it's like to have the illness in Greece. Here's a summary of what he told me....
- As far as I know, there aren’t any ME charities or support groups in Greece -if any do exist, they must be very few.
- Unfortunately as a result, there aren’t any reliably registered figures in regards to how many people in the country suffer from ME. If you were to apply a similar ratio to other European countries it could be suggested that as many as 50,000 of the 12 million population suffer with the illness.
- As far as the Government is concerned, it doesn’t have a clue about ME/CFS (and even if it did know, the economic crisis is deep and the possibility to devote funds to research is limited).
- I don’t know if there is a general treatment in Greece as doctors may not be really familiar even with the diagnosis. I was lucky enough to find Dr Naoum, for whom ME/CFS belongs to his research interests. The treatment he prescribed is the usual one for stomach ulcers (zantac, riopan antacid, drinking soda throughout the day in amounts someone can easily bear in order to neutralize gastric acid) as he believes that one of the main causes of the illness exists in the digestive system.
- As far as I know, Greece does not have a specialist clinic for the diagnosis and treatment of ME/CFS. I’m not sure if the government are currently funding biomedical research projects, it is possible that research programs at an academic level occur but if they do they are not publicised.
- I don’t believe that the state give any special benefits to patients who are unable to work.
- Unfortunately people here in Greece are not organized in groups, forums etc. Therefore, I think that the knowledge background of greek patients on the illness, depends upon the effort each of us can individually (or with the help of friends/family) consume via internet surfing, international forums, etc. I personally was not aware about the ongoing Rituximab Trial in Norway or the controversy surrounding PACE in the UK so it would surprise me if others were too.
- My improvement in the last 1.5 years after being treated by Dr Naoum has been really impressive. I would really like to see other people that share the same ME/CFS root cause to get better as soon as possible. I would like doctors at least instead of diagnosing psychological problems, to be able to diagnose the illness properly.
- I don’t feel optimistic about the current situation over here. However, sometimes one spark is enough to make a fire. Therefore, the effort of fundraisers and charities is really important.
March 2016