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THE WHITE HOUSE
Office of the Press Secretary
For Immediate Release July 13, 2000
PRESIDENT CLINTON ANNOUNCES MAJOR NEW INVESTMENT IN DIABETES RESEARCH,
TREATMENT, AND PREVENTION
Urges Congress to Fully Fund Racial Disparities Health Initiative
Today, at the national conference of the NAACP, the President will
announce that the National Institutes of Health and the Juvenile
Diabetes Foundation will immediately release $5 million to 10 research
sites worldwide to fund new clinical trials attempting to replicate the
breakthrough "islet transplantation" protocol that has apparently cured
a small number of individuals with Type 1 diabetes. He will also
highlight that the Administration's Mid-Session review budget commits
another $300 million over five years for research on and prevention of
all types of diabetes. As he outlines this major new financing
commitment, the President will unveil findings from a new report
documenting that adolescent birth rates, infant mortality, and childhood
immunization rates are improving across all segments of the youth
populations, including minorities. However, the President will also
note that racial disparities in health status persist, and call on the
Congress to fully fund the Administration's initiative to improve health
outcomes and eliminate health disparities amongst American minority
populations. Today, the President will:
ANNOUNCE SIGNIFICANT NEW FUNDING INVESTMENT 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. Diabetes is the leading cause of
new cases of blindness in people aged 20 to 74, affecting up to 24,000
people each year. It is also the leading cause of non-traumatic
lower-limb amputations - more than 56,000 a year. In addition, people
with diabetes are more than twice as likely to have heart disease or a
stroke than people without the disease. One in four African American
women over the age of 55 has diabetes, and African Americans are more
likely to have diabetes than whites.
- New investment in breakthrough clinical trials treating Type 1
Diabetes. Today, President Clinton will announce that the National
Institutes of Health will invest $5 million, as part of a larger public
private partnership between NIH and the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation, in
10 sites worldwide in an attempt to replicate the breakthrough islet
transplantation technique demonstrated to have effectively cured Type 1
diabetes in a small number of patients. There are approximately one
million individuals with Type 1 diabetes nationwide, approximately 25
percent of which are minorities, and 30,000 new cases are diagnosed
every year - 13,000 in children.
- Highlighted new investment of $150 million over 5 years in research
on diabetes proposed in mid-session review. The President's Mid-Session
review budget includes $150 million over five additional years at the
National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention for new research on treatment and prevention of Type 1
diabetes, including ways to understand and address the immune system
abnormalities that cause the disease and combat complications of the
disease.
- Highlighted new investment of $150 million over five additional
years to prevent and treat diabetes in Native American populations. The
President's Mid-Session review budget includes approximately $ 150
million for over 300 tribal grant programs to prevent the development of
Type 2 diabetes in individuals at risk and enhance the diabetes care and
education provided at Indian Health Service clinics through the creation
of new diabetes clinics and teams of health care professionals dedicated
to diabetes care.
- Highlighted investment of at least $65 million in new or expanded
initiatives dedicated to research on and prevention of Type 2 diabetes
in his FY 2001 budget. President Clinton announced that his FY 2001
budget proposes to dedicate at least $65 million to research on Type 2
diabetes, as part of an overall investment at NIH of $561 million in
diabetes research. This new funding will be used to fund clinical
trials aimed at developing more effective treatment; prevention
strategies and national education efforts for Type 2 diabetes; research
on risk factors for development and progression of complications for
diabetes; and the reasons for racial disparities in the incidence of
diabetes. This funding will also be used to expand and speed the search
for genes indicating a predisposition to Type 2 diabetes and basic
scientific research on the molecular basis for the disease.
HIGHLIGHT A NEW REPORT INDICATING THAT THE WELL BEING OF AMERICA'S
CHILDREN CONTINUES TO IMPROVE, BUT MORE MUST BE DONE TO ADDRESS RACIAL
DISPARITIES. Today, the President will highlight the findings of a new
government report entitled "America's Children: Key National Indicators
of Well-Being 2000" by the Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family
Statistics detailing that the health and well-being of American children
continues to improve. Key findings include:
- Childhood immunization status. In 1998, approximately 80 percent
of children aged 19 to 35 months had received the full complement of
vaccines, a dramatic increase from 55 percent in 1992. And while great
improvement has been made among minority children, only 73 percent of
African-American children received the full complement of vaccines as
opposed to 82 percent of white non-Hispanic children.
- Infant mortality. In 1998, the national infant mortality rate was
7.2 deaths per 1000 births, a record low - 14 percent lower than the
1993 rate. However, the rate for African American infants (13.7 deaths
per 1000 births) is still more than twice the rate for white and
Hispanic infants (6 deaths per 1000 births).
- Teen birth rates. 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. The sharpest decline was in the birth
rate for African American teens ages 15 to 17, for whom the rate dropped
by nearly one-third from 1991 to 1998.
- Low birth-weight babies. Although low birth-weight rates are
rising for children of all races, in part because of the higher number
of twin and triplet births has increased, 13.2 percent of African
American children were born at a low birth-weight in 1998 as opposed to
6.6 percent of white children.
- Violent crimes committed by young people. In 1998, the serious
violent crime offending rate for youth was 27 crimes per 1,000
adolescents - a drop by more than half from 1993 and the lowest level
recorded since 1973.
While the racial disparities in these indicators is troubling, it is
encouraging that enrollment in early childhood education is up,
particularly among children living in poverty, among children with
mothers who were not in the labor force, and among black, non-Hispanic
children.
URGE THE CONGRESS TO FULLY FUND THE ADMINISTRATION'S RACE AND HEALTH
INITIATIVE. The President will note more needs to be done to address
racial health disparities. For example, African Americans are 40
percent more likely to die from heart disease than whites. Native
Americans suffer significantly higher rates of infant mortality and
heart disease. And Asian Americans are as much as five times more
likely to die from liver cancer associated with hepatitis. In order to
address these and other racial health disparities, President Clinton
launched a new initiative in 1998 that set a national goal of
eliminating by the year 2010, longstanding disparities in health status
that affect racial and ethnic minority groups in six key areas: 1)
infant mortality; 2) diabetes; 3) cancer; 4) heart disease; 5) HIV/AIDS
and 6) immunizations. The President's FY 2001 Budget includes $35
million for these demonstration projects. Recently, the Senate provided
only $30 million. The President will reiterate his call to the Congress
to fully fund this critical initiative.
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