Today, Long COVID Alliance proudly announced it will begin establishing a new Infection Associated Chronic Conditions Patient Advocacy Coalition (IACC PAC) using $77,000 in grant funding through the CDC Foundation’s Infection-Associated Chronic Conditions Understanding and Engagement (ICUE) program. The project will bring together diverse disease groups and patient organizations to promote collaboration to address those challenges faced by people living with Long COVID and associated conditions, myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS), postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) and other forms of dysautonomia, mast-cell activation syndrome (MCAS), Ehlers-Danlos syndrome (EDS), Lyme disease and other post-viral or infection-associated conditions.
Through the ICUE Program, the CDC Foundation is providing more than $150,000 to two organizations, Long COVID Alliance through Solve ME/CFS Initiative (Solve M.E.) and social impact firm Commonality, Inc., to help patients with Long COVID and infection-associated chronic conditions. The effort seeks to strengthen cross-sector partnerships among disease groups, to identify common objectives and actionable steps for this community.
Solve co-founded the Long COVID Alliance to use the collective influence and resources of over hundreds of organizations, companies, and individuals to transform our understanding of “long haul” diseases, including ME/CFS, Long Covid, and other post-infectious chronic diseases. The Long COVID Alliance is a global network of patient-advocates, clinicians, disease experts, and drug developers leveraging their collective knowledge and resources to educate policy makers, accelerate research, and transform the broader understanding of post-viral illness.
“It has become clear that collaboration among various stakeholders – patient organizations, healthcare practitioners, researchers, and government agencies – is necessary to improve care and outcomes across these broader patient populations,” said Oved Amitay, President and CEO of Solve M.E. “We are very excited that the CDC Foundation has selected the Long COVID Alliance to lay the foundation for a broader coalition of organizations to make progress in addressing the needs of the millions living with chronic infection-associated diseases.”
Read the full press release here.
