A major breakthrough in the treatment of the crippling disease ME, will see patients not only from Harold and Brentwood, but from all over the UK and Europe, flood through the gates of Harold Wood hospital.

The National ME Centre based at the Gubbins Lane hospital is now home to the only Bradford Variable Projection Microscope in the UK, and top international ME specialist, Dr Ian Hyams is the only medic in the country who can use it.

The American microscope worth tens of thousands of pounds, has a video zoom camera incorporated which can view live blood with up to a 10,000 magnification rate. An ordinary lab microscope can magnify only up to 3,000 times.

Dr Hyams, who recently joined the centre's medical team from South Africa said: "This equipment will open up so many new doors into the diagnosis, treatment and research into chronic illnesses like ME. Patients can be examined straight away and we can see almost immediate results.

"The live video pictures can be seen by the patient and it gets them involved. They can see the illness which usually carries symptoms you can't see like muscle pain and fatigue."

Myalgic Encephalomyelitis (ME) is a chronic disabling illness of the immune and central nervous system. It is estimated that 150,000 people in the UK suffer from ME and onset most often occurs between the ages of 20 and 40.

The National ME Centre in Harold Wood was set up in 1990 and offers the only in-patient care for ME sufferers in the UK.

The microscope will also be used to group together patients with similar symptoms for research purposes.

Dr Hyams said: "There are so many different symptoms which makes it difficult and time consuming to bunch sufferers together for research. Now we can do it in minutes."

The microscope was presented to the National ME Centre, which although housed at the hospital is independent from the NHS, at the international Fatigue 2000 conference in London, which was hosted by the group.

It was donated by James Quinn, a private entrepreneur pharmacist with an interest in the condition and came in time for National ME Awareness week, which kicks off on Saturday.

For more information on the National ME Centre and what it does write to the Centre Administrator Karen Walsh at The National ME Centre, Harold Wood Hospital, Gubbins Lane, Harold Wood RM3 0BE.

New technology: Dr Ian Hyams displays the new technology on offer to ME patients at the National ME centre at Harold Wood hospital.

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