THIS ISSUE AVAILABLE ONLINE WITH EXPANDED INFORMATION AND PHOTOS
AT:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/newsletter/weekly
IN THIS ISSUE:
1) HHS awards $72 million in Early Head Start grants
2) Secretary Thompson urges Americans to donate blood
3) HHS provides funds to help low-income households with energy
costs
4) Secretary Thompson approves Medicare benefits for breast cancer
treatment
5) HHS announces research plan to fight autoimmune diseases
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HHS awards $72 million in Early Head Start grants
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced $72 million in grants to 160 local agencies to administer the Early Head Start Program.
The funds will be used to increase Early Head Start enrollment by approximately 7,000 infants and toddlers, bringing total Early Head Start enrollment to 62,400. Secretary Thompson made the announcement at the Seventh Annual Birth to Three Conference in Washington, D.C.
"These Early Head Start grants will ensure that thousands more young children get needed support to promote early education, giving them a better chance for success when they eventually start school," Secretary Thompson said. "Early Head Start agencies are essential partners in helping to prepare economically disadvantaged children for a lifetime of learning."
Early Head Start provides comprehensive child development and family support services to low-income pregnant women and families with children under the age of three. It also teaches parenting skills and helps families move toward self-sufficiency.
"Early Head Start works. Results from the recent Early Head Start National Evaluation show that Early Head Start is making a difference in the lives of American children and their families. Early Head Start has improved the cognitive, language, and social-emotional development of many children," Secretary Thompson said.
The Secretary also highlighted private sector cooperation with Early Head Start, citing the George Foundation in Fort Bend County, Texas, which purchased 3.6 acres of land and is paying $1 million for a facility for its local Early Head Start program.
The list of grants is available here.
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Secretary Thompson urges Americans to donate blood
HHS Secretary Thompson joined the American Red Cross, the American Association of Blood Banks and America's Blood Centers in calling on Americans to help alleviate a serious blood shortage across the country by donating blood, as part of National Volunteer Blood Donor Month.
"Replenishing our supply of this life-giving resource is an urgent national priority - one that will better help us care for our families, friends and neighbors on a daily basis, and one that will make us better prepared to respond to a crisis anywhere in the country," Secretary Thompson said. "Our nation regularly faces blood shortages, not just in times of tragedy. So we must commit to give the gift of life year round."
The nation is currently facing critical shortages in its blood supply. With less than a two-day reserve of blood on hand, the nation's blood banks are far short of what is needed to be adequately prepared for any large-scale disaster or the private emergencies families deal with every day. Donating blood is a simple, safe, life-saving and selfless gift that helped 4.5 million Americans last year.
About 32,000 pints of blood are used in the United States every day. That's one pint every 2.7 seconds and three gallons every minute. And while about 60 percent of the American population is eligible to donate blood, only 5 percent donates regularly.
Secretary Thompson has set a goal of doubling the blood donor pool to 10 percent of the population - up from the current 5 percent. To set an example, Secretary Thompson challenged all qualified federal employee to give blood twice a year or more. He also challenged all cabinet members to organize blood drives in their departments. This year, Secretary Thompson will expand this initiative to state and local governments, as well as the private sector through the Workplace Partnership for Life - part of the Secretary's organ, tissue, marrow and blood donation initiative.
For more information go here.
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HHS provides funds to help low-income households with energy costs
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced grants of $545 million to help low-income citizens with their heating bills.
The funds are grants to states for the second quarter of the fiscal year for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). These grants bring the total amount given to states under LIHEAP for this fiscal year to $1.38 billion. Grants were provided to all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Native American and Alaska tribes.
"Our Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program helps millions of Americans who need assistance with their heating bills," Secretary Thompson said. "Heating costs are a significant item in many household budgets, and they can be especially hard for those at the bottom of the income scale."
LIHEAP supports more than 4 million low-income households each year deal with energy costs related to extreme cold and heat. States determine which low-income families receive LIHEAP support. Many of the families who benefit from the program include small children, senior citizens and persons with disabilities.
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Secretary Thompson approves Medicare benefits for breast cancer treatment
Secretary Thompson approved the District of Columbia's request to extend Medicaid benefits to uninsured women who are diagnosed with breast or cervical cancer through a CDC screening program.
Washington, D.C., is joining 49 states that have been approved to offer such care through Medicaid. All were approved by Secretary Thompson in the last 23 months.
The Breast and Cervical Cancer Prevention and Treatment program allows states to provide access to lifesaving treatment through Medicaid. It gives women access to all Medicaid services for the duration of their cancer treatment, and provides coverage for women under the age of 65 who are ineligible for Medicaid and are not covered for breast or cervical cancer treatment.
"We are offering help, hope and health care to women who otherwise would receive only a breast cancer diagnosis without the necessary follow-up care. At a time when the number of breast cancer deaths are dropping, we need to ensure all women have access to screening and care," Secretary Thompson said.
Since the CDC screening program was created in 1990, more than 1.8 million women have taken more than 3 million breast and cervical cancer screening tests. The CDC screening program has diagnosed more than 9,000 breast cancers, more than 48,000 precancerous cervical lesions, and more than 800 cervical cancers since 1990.
The Bush Administration is committed to fighting breast cancer. The HHS budget request for FY03 seeks $892.4 million for breast cancer prevention, treatment and research - a 10 percent increase over FY02 and a 23 percent increase over FY01. This budget includes $732.3 million for breast cancer research at the National Institutes of Health - a 12 percent increase over FY02 and a 26 percent increase over FY01. It also includes $122.5 million for the CDC screening program - a 4.7 percent increase over FY02 and a 10 percent increase over FY01.
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HHS announces research plan to fight autoimmune diseases
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced the release of a comprehensive research plan from HHS' National Institutes of Health (NIH) to fight autoimmune diseases, a collection of disorders including multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis that affect an estimated 14 to 22 million Americans. The plan will foster research to identify genetic, environmental and infectious causes of autoimmune diseases and to develop new treatments and prevention strategies.
The Autoimmune Diseases Research Plan provides specific recommendations on future research directions and demonstrates the commitment of HHS to continue a robust program of autoimmune disease research. The plan also calls for educating the medical community and the public about autoimmune diseases.
"This plan highlights many unprecedented opportunities to increase our understanding of autoimmune diseases at the population, individual and molecular levels, with a conceptual focus on the underlying mechanisms shared among many autoimmune diseases," said Elias Zerhouni, M.D., director of the National Institutes of Health. "This strategy should ultimately allow the translation of new knowledge into more effective treatments and prevention strategies."
Autoimmune diseases result when the immune system attacks the body's own organs, tissues and cells. Physicians and scientists have identified more than 80 different autoimmune diseases. Some are well known, such as rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, type 1 diabetes and systemic lupus; others are less familiar, such as autoimmune hepatitis, Sjögren's syndrome and pemphigus.
Highlights of the plan include the following.
· The Burden of Autoimmune Diseases: Studies will determine the incidence, prevalence and severity of autoimmune diseases in the United States as well as the number of deaths that result from these disorders.
· Cause of Autoimmune Diseases: The plan calls for researchers to identify the genetic and environmental factors that lead to autoimmune diseases and to investigate the relationship between them.
· Diagnosis, Treatment and Prevention: The plan calls for developing centralized, broad-based clinical research centers with the capacity to test potential new treatments and diagnostics with multi-institutional, multi-disciplinary clinical studies.
· Training, Education and Information: New training and career opportunities will be available to scientists considering a career in autoimmune disease research.
The plan can be found on the NIAID Web site here.
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Last updated 10 January 2002
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