Melvin Ramsay

Andrew Melvin Ramsay (1901–1990) was a British physician, who is known for his research and advocacy on myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), a chronic disease causing muscle weakness (especially after exertion) and cognitive dysfunction (brain fog).

Ramsay worked as a consultant at the Royal Free Hospital in London during a mysterious 1955 disease outbreak of what later became known as ME. He studied the disease and similar outbreaks elsewhere. Work by Ramsay showed that although ME seldom caused death, the disease could be highly disabling.

Upset by the lack of sympathy for long-term sufferers, he became their lifelong advocate and co-founded the ME Association. In 1986 he published the first case definition of ME. Two research grants are named after him: the Ramsay research grant from the Solve ME/CFS Initiative and the Ramsay Research Fund of the ME Association.

Early life and career Melvin Ramsay was born in Preston, Lancashire in 1901. He attended secondary school at the Mackie Academy in Stonehaven, Scotland and, in 1923, obtained a Master of Arts degree from the University of Aberdeen and completed an undergraduate medical degree there in 1926.

From 1926 to 1935, he practiced medicine in South Africa. He then returned to the United Kingdom to work at Fulham Hospital. In 1937, he moved to the North Western Fevers Hospital. His duties included the education of nurses and medical undergraduates on the practical aspects of managing infectious diseases. Ramsay worked in the Royal Free Hospital in 1955 when an unknown infection affecting 300 staff raged between July and November, which required the hospital to close down. he co-founded the ME Association, a UK research funding and advocacy organisation for people with ME/CFS. He acted as its president for several years,

Work by Ramsay showed that although ME seldom caused death, the disease could be highly disabling. Consequently, the term benign was removed from its description. Ramsay suggested that mitochondrial dysfunction may involved in the muscle fatigue in ME.

In 1986 he published the first case definition of ME in his book Postviral Fatigue Syndrome: The Saga of Royal Free Disease. In a second edition of the same book (now renamed Myalgic Encephalomyelitis and Postviral Fatigue States: The Saga of the Royal Free Disease), he named three features of the disease: "(1) muscle fatiguability after minimal exertion and a delay in the restoration of muscle power; (2) cerebral dysfunction, and (3) impaired circulation".

After multiple similar outbreaks in the United States, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention proposed a new definition and name of the illness to chronic fatigue syndrome. and the Ramsay Research Fund of the ME Association. or Jess Ramsay (née Murray) was a fellow Scot. His daughter Louie Ramsay was born Molteno, South Africa in 1929.

Journal publications