700,000 euros

Vienna invests in Long Covid research

From left: Vice Rector for Clinical Affairs at the Medical University of Vienna Oswald Wagner, WWTF President Michael Häupl, Mayor Michael Ludwig, specialist in clinical immunology at the Medical University of Vienna Eva Untersmayr-Elsenhuber and CEO of the WE&ME Foundation Gerhard Ströck.(Bild: Stadt Wien / Christian Jobst)

700,000 euros to generate more knowledge about Long-Covid and Co. Seven projects are being funded.

For a long time, the disease ME/CFS, better known as Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, was under the radar of public discourse. Yet the suffering of those affected, who in the worst cases cannot even tolerate light due to immense exhaustion, is great. With Long-Covid, the number of people suffering from post-acute infectious diseases has doubled since 2019, to 80,000 in Austria.

In order to drive research forward, the city has launched an initial call for proposals on this topic with the Vienna Science and Technology Fund (WWTF) and financial support from Gerhard Ströck's WE&ME Foundation.

City doubles donation
Seven projects have now been selected from 19 submitted, including neurological and immune research as well as genetics, which will be funded for one year. Ströck's foundation donated 300,000 euros, which the city doubled. This means that a total of 700,000 euros is now available with an existing sum. "The aim is to research correlations and identify ways of dealing better with the disease," says Mayor Michael Ludwig (SPÖ).