Coordinator: Standing by. At this time, all participants in a listen-only mode for today's duration. Today's conference call is being recorded. If you have any objections, you may disconnect. I will now turn the call over to your conference host, Dr. Dana Brimmer. Ma'am, you may begin. Dana Brimmer: Thank you. Good afternoon everyone. My name is Dana Brimmer and I am a contractor working with the ME/CFS Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On behalf of the program, I am pleased to welcome you to today's ME/CFS Stakeholder Engagement and Communication Conference Call, known as SEC.
Our primary purpose here is to share information with a large number of people with interests in ME/CFS as part of our regular outreach and communication series. Before we get started I want to review how the SEC calls work. Notification of calls will be sent by email, and information is also posted on the CDC ME/CFS website. There is no need to register or RSVP for the call. Simply dial the 800 number and use the participant code provided in the emails or found on the CDC website. Due to the large number of call participants we are unable to have call lines available in speak mode. Therefore, we will take questions via email using the ME/CFS SEC call email system. Note that this email address cannot respond to inquiries. Please note that -- due to time constraints -- CDC and the guest speakers will not be able to answer all questions. But the CDC ME/CFS program looks forward to reading them all.
Our guest panel presentation today is “Take Home Messages from the 2015 Institute of Medicine Report ME/CFS” by Drs. Lucinda Bateman, Ellen Clayton, and Peter Rowe. First we will hear from Dr. Elizabeth Unger, who will provide updates about the CDC's MECFS program. After Dr. Unger and our guest panels speak, we will answer questions submitted via email. I will first read the questions out loud and then our speakers will answer each one. I now want to read a disclaimer. These calls are open to the public. Please exercise discretion on sensitive content and material as confidentiality during these calls or items submitted via email cannot be guaranteed.
Today's call will be recorded by CDC and transcripts will be available at a later date on CDC's website. The views of non-CDC presenters expressed during this conference call are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Health and Human Services or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I would now like to ask Dr. Elizabeth Unger -- Chief of the Chronic Viral Diseases Branch at CDC -- to start the call. Welcome Dr. Unger. Dr. Elizabeth Unger: Thank you Dana, and welcome
