Abstract
At the National Institutes of Health (NIH), burden of disease is an important factor in funding decisions along with such factors as scientific opportunity, the quality of the science, and the interest of researchers. Recent studies have quantified the burden for a number of diseases in the United States and the NIH has used that information to analyze how its own funding patterns correspond to disease burden. However, the burden of disease has not been quantified for myalgic encephalomyelitis, also called chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS) and is often underestimated due to a lack of research and the misperceptions about the nature of the disease.