Anna Brooks, PhD

Patients with severe ME/CFS need hope in the form of evidence-based interventions, not opinions.

Our evidence-based rebuttal to *that* BMJ opinion piece published last week.
This has been authored by a coalition of 19 doctors, scientists and patient advocates from around the world, with now 80+ signatures of support from the scientific community.

www.bmj.com/content/389/...

YouTube video by Re: News ME/Chronic fatigue syndrome: The mysterious illness trapping people in their bodies

Today is #InternationalMEawarenessDay recognising the #MillionsMissing with #MECFS.

One story from NZ documenting how families have to create their own health system.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=DsOA...

NZ's Long Covid blind spot nothing short of a crisis Analysis: Post-infection syndromes like Long Covid are nothing new – but pandemic-scale waves of a novel virus exposed just how ill-prepared we are to handle them.

"Both #LongCovid and #MECFS are under-recognised, not because they are rare, but because clinicians lack the tools and training to adequately detect the systemic dysfunction they reflect"

@drannanz.bsky.social on how New Zealand’s Long Covid blind spot has now reached crisis levels

#pwME 🇳🇿

Honoured to represent Aotearoa NZ 🇳🇿 on the 🌏 stage as part of the lead authorship team behind this global #LongCovid consensus
28 countries, 179 experts representing clinicians, researchers & lived experience.
An important step toward better care, research & recognition
doi.org/10.1186/s129...

📣 It’s finally out out - initial guidance to address the spectrum of LC as a disease & reinforces the need for translational research & large-scale treatment trials for treatment protocols.

🌍 🫶🏼 🙏 to the 179 exerts who collaborated from 28 countries

ann-clinmicrob.biomedcentral.com/articles/10....

Is NZ the worst country to have Long Covid? Rohan Botica and Dr Anna Brooks have been researching how to diagnose, treat post-acute infection syndromes like Long Covid in NZ.

Really good interview with @drannanz.bsky.social this morning on #LongCovid

Is NZ the worst country to have Long Covid? www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Clear immune markers remain a challenge, & is a core focus of our research. Ie we are looking at 40+ markers using high dimensional cytometry approaches and 'exhaustion' markers are not as clear-cut as it might seem... immune 'signatures' may be more informative & we focus on both adaptive & innate

Is NZ the worst country to have Long Covid? Rohan Botica and Dr Anna Brooks have been researching how to diagnose, treat post-acute infection syndromes like Long Covid in NZ.

2/

This week Dr Anna Brooks @drannanz.bsky.social and Rohan Botica from DysImmune Research Aotearoa followed up in response.

www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

#longcovid #MEcfs #PwME #CFS

Is NZ the worst country to have Long Covid? Rohan Botica and Dr Anna Brooks have been researching how to diagnose, treat post-acute infection syndromes like Long Covid in NZ.

My co-founders of dysimmune.nz on Radio NZ.

"Rohan Botica and @drannanz.bsky.social are two of the founders of DysImmune Research Aotearoa focusing on immune dysfunction research to help understand, diagnose, treat post-acute infection syndromes."

#LongCovid #MECFS

www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

The impact of long Covid will be huge. So why is New Zealand doing nothing about it? 'You think it won’t be you, then after your next inevitable Covid-19 reinfection, it is, and you’re left to wonder why nobody stepped up.'

Co-founder of www.dysimmune.nz writing an opinion piece in The Spinoff —

"almost five years into the pandemic, not only are there still no treatments for #LongCovid, there aren’t even any diagnostic tools – and we don’t seem overly interested in finding them."

thespinoff.co.nz/science/30-1...

Long COVID manifests with T cell dysregulation, inflammation and an uncoordinated adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2 Nature Immunology - Roan et al. use Olink and single‐cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) to show a dysregulated crosstalk between the cellular and humoral immune responses in individuals with...

Long COVID manifests with T cell dysregulation, inflammation and an uncoordinated adaptive immune response to SARS-CoV-2

Cause and consequences. LC individuals exhibited systemic inflammation and immune dysregulation.

@NatImmunol

www.nature.com/artic...
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Fantastic interview with @edyong209.bsky.social — more timely with today's publication of one of the first major #LongCovid papers for 2024.

The psychosomatic model for #MECFS has caused immense harm to patients, families, medicine itself and society generally.

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Applications for this @salivadirect.bsky.social role are still possible by sending a CV, cover letter, and salary requirements to brittany@salivadirectinc.org.

This is an exciting role to help guide future scientific activities and collaboration in the saliva space!

docs.google.com/document/d/1...

Please share! Non-profit SalivaDirect, Inc. is seeking a Scientific Director to lead all things research, development, and collaboration. This remote role will work closely with and be supported by some truly incredible colleagues.

www.linkedin.com/jobs/view/37...

Hi Karyn our study is for 16yrs+ sorry & still a bit tricky to recruit out of our region at the moment. I'm hoping there will be interest to also do <16yrs/children, however funding for biomed research has never been a priority. All the best with your 14yo + do check-out
www.longcovidkids.org

Studies — Post-Viral Research Aotearoa

#LongCovid & #MECFS biomed research 🇳🇿
🚨Reminder for those in Ao/NZ. We are still recruiting for our biomarker discovery study
🚨We have exciting intl collaborations to explore immunometobolic dysfunction, but just lack 💰 support to operate at pace
🚨To sign up or find more info: www.pvra.nz/donate

We did meet a few months back to discuss working together, yes. I'm just juggling a lot, so thanks for the reminder to touch base with them again! I'm aiming to visit Melbourne soon for colab purposes

It's mostly Auckland (UoA) at the moment due to funding constraints and logistics. We need blood samples processed back in my lab relatively quickly. We are working on doing fly-in-fly out day visits to other areas once 💰 allows 🙏🏽

Studies — Post-Viral Research Aotearoa

#LongCovid & #MECFS biomed research 🇳🇿
🚨Reminder for those in Ao/NZ. We are still recruiting for our biomarker discovery study
🚨We have exciting intl collaborations to explore immunometobolic dysfunction, but just lack 💰 support to operate at pace
🚨To sign up or find more info: www.pvra.nz/donate

Long COVID research risks losing momentum – we need a moonshot Investing US$1 billion every year for the next ten years into long COVID research could improve the lives of millions and save trillions in economic costs. Investing US$1 billion every year for the ne...

Long Covid research:
"We call for a moonshot for long COVID, a commitment — from the US govt - to invest at least US$1 billion annually over the next 10 years to address the problem..."

NZ govts investment in #LongCovid biomed research to date? Approx $0
www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Just getting started over here! Hi bluesky peeps! 👋🏼

Scientists Offer a New Explanation for Long Covid In some patients, remnants of the coronavirus in the gut may stifle production of serotonin, an important neurotransmitter, researchers suggest.

A new study suggests people with long covid are experiencing a serotonin reduction triggered by remnants of the virus lingering in the gut, which could explain memory problems and some neurological and cognitive issues. 📰