Thursday, July 13, 2000
We want to do more to close the gaps and do something about the fact that people of color suffer far higher rates of heart disease, cancer, AIDS and diabetes.
President Bill Clinton
July 13, 2000
Today, at the national conference of the NAACP in Baltimore, Maryland, President Clinton announced that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation will immediately release $5 million to fund new clinical trials attempting to replicate the breakthrough "islet transplantation" technique that has apparently cured some individuals with Type 1 diabetes.
The President highlighted that his Mid-Session review budget commits another $300 million over five years for diabetes research and prevention; unveiled findings from a new report documenting that adolescent birth rates, infant mortality, and childhood immunization rates are improving across all population segments; and called on Congress to fully fund his initiative to eliminate health disparities among American minority populations.
ANNOUNCING SIGNIFICANT NEW FUNDING INVESTMENTS IN DIABETES RESEARCH AND PREVENTION. Approximately 16 million people nationwide have diabetes, a chronic disease with no cure that costs the health care system approximately $98 billion annually. One in four African American women over 55 has diabetes, and African Americans are more likely to have diabetes than whites. Today, President Clinton announced:
- The NIH and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation will invest $5 million in ten sites worldwide in an attempt to replicate the islet transplantation technique that has apparently cured Type 1 diabetes in a small number of patients.
- His Mid-Session review budget includes a new investment of $150 million over 5 years for research on treatment and prevention of Type 1 diabetes, and a new investment of $150 million over five additional years to prevent and treat diabetes in Native American populations.
- His FY2001 budget dedicates at least $65 million to research on Type 2 diabetes, as part of an overall investment at NIH of $561 million in diabetes research.
REPORTING PROMISING FINDINGS ON AMERICA'S CHILDREN. The President highlighted findings of a new report by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics entitled "America's Children: Key National Indicators of Well-Being 2000." Key findings of the report include:
- Between 1992-1998, the number of children aged 19 to 35 months receiving the full complement of vaccines increased from 55 percent to 80 percent. While great improvement has been made among minority children, only 73 percent of African American children received the full complement of vaccines, compared to 82 percent of white non-Hispanic children;
- In 1998, the national infant mortality rate was 7.2 deaths per 1000 births, a record low. However, the rate for African American infants is still more than twice the rate for white and Hispanic infants; and
- The national teen birth rate dropped for the seventh year in a row to a record low of 30 births per 1000 for young women ages 15 to 17 years old.
URGING CONGRESS TO FULLY FUND THE ADMINISTRATION'S RACE AND HEALTH INITIATIVE. In 1998, President Clinton launched an initiative that set a national goal of eliminating by the year 2010 health disparities among minorities in the areas of infant mortality, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, HIV/AIDS, and immunizations. Noting that more needs to be done to address racial and ethnic health disparities, the President reiterated his call to Congress to fully fund this critical initiative.
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