For over seven months, AISF ODV has been carrying out a peaceful but incisive protest action: a relay hunger strike involving a different person every day across the country. Each participant commits to fasting for 24 hours, thus contributing to building a long and uninterrupted chain of solidarity, visibility, and denunciation. Fasting as a gesture of civil commitment by those who live with the burden of the disease every day and strongly demand dignity, listening, and recognition.
The goal of the mobilization is clear and urgent: to obtain official recognition of fibromyalgia as a disabling disease and ensure its inclusion in the Essential Levels of Care (LEA), so that patients can access early diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and adequate protection, overcoming their current condition of invisibility.
Fibromyalgia is a complex condition characterized by widespread musculoskeletal pain, chronic fatigue, sleep disorders, cognitive problems, and a severe impairment of quality of life. Although the World Health Organization recognized it as early as 1992, Italy still lacks a national law that certifies its full status and includes it among the diseases recognized by the state.
The protest carried out by AISF is a request for concrete and timely responses from the institutions, through the approval of the decree updating the Essential Levels of Care (LEA), which already provides for the inclusion of fibromyalgia. This long-awaited update would represent a fundamental step towards social and health justice for a large section of the population.
A strong action to show the discontent of a population of patients who feel unheard and who suffer from an unconstitutional condition that must be denounced and challenged every day.
“This peaceful form of protest aims to obtain concrete responses from institutions so that patients with fibromyalgia can access early diagnosis, appropriate treatment, and adequate protection,” says Prof. Piercarlo Sarzi Puttini, President of AISF.
“In fact,” adds Giusy Fabio, vice president of the Association, “despite the promises made in recent months, there is still no certainty about the inclusion of the disease in the update of the Essential Levels of Care (LEA), nor about its inclusion in the decree law on rheumatology, about which we have already expressed our concerns in recent months, as it would still represent an unsatisfactory and ineffective response.”
The Feldenkrais 4Life project supports this initiative and, together with AISF ODV, invites citizens, associations, and the media to follow the official channels to learn more about the stories of those involved and contribute to greater public awareness.
Anyone who wants to support this battle can also do so through social media, sharing messages and testimonials with the hashtag #riprendiamoilpercorso, already used by thousands of patients and supporters to make their voices heard, or by actively participating in the relay hunger strike, which will continue until a concrete response is received from the institutions.
If you would like to participate, please fill out the form and an AISF operator will contact you with all the necessary information:
