Welcome everyone to the September edition of the Emerge Australia newsletter. What a month it has been!
I was privileged to be able to attend the inaugural International Society for Long COVID (ISLC) and Post-Acute Infection Syndromes (PAIS) conference held in Amsterdam. This is the first international conference I have attended since joining Emerge Australia over five years ago – and it didn’t disappoint!
Held at Amsterdam’s H’ART Museum from 26–29 August 2026. It brought together several hundred researchers, clinicians, patient representatives and policymakers working across ME/CFS, long COVID and other post-acute infection syndromes (PAIS). More than 185 abstracts were submitted and the programme ultimately contained more than 100 scientific and clinical presentations.
I would characterise Amsterdam as an important directional conference rather than a conference announcing any single breakthrough.
The strongest overall message was that these illnesses are increasingly being investigated as complex, multisystem biological diseases involving interacting abnormalities in immunity, energy metabolism, vascular/endothelial function, skeletal muscle, autonomic regulation and the nervous system. At the same time, researchers are beginning to move from simply documenting abnormalities toward stratifying patients, developing biomarkers and testing mechanism-based treatments.
For ME/CFS specifically, three developments strike me as particularly consequential: the increasingly strong biological evidence surrounding PEM and exertion intolerance; the explicit rejection of deconditioning as an adequate explanation for the muscle abnormalities being observed; and the creation of a much larger international research ecosystem in which ME/CFS can be investigated alongside long COVID without necessarily losing its diagnostic identity.
The meeting also formally introduced the International Society of Long COVID & Post-Acute Infection Syndromes, intended to continue international collaboration in research, clinical care, education and professional development.
The organisers now have recordings of 100+ presentations available through video-on-demand, this includes a separate patient-focused recap produced to translate the findings into more accessible language.
Professional connections were formed with several speakers and other participants and I look forward to our ongoing dialogue as we continue to work towards learning, translating and transferring important research being conducted in other countries to the Australian context.
As always, thank you for your ongoing support.
Enjoy reading this September edition!
