THIS ISSUE AVAILABLE ONLINE WITH EXPANDED INFORMATION AND PHOTOS AT:
http://www.hhs.gov/news/newsletter/weekly
IN THIS ISSUE:
1) HHS Announces $1.4 billion To States For Bioterrorism Preparedness
2) HHS Awards $16 million To Provide Health Care To Health Care To 250,000 Americans
3) HHS Announces $100 million To Prepare For A Potential Worldwide Flu Outbreak
4) Life Expectancy In The U.S. Now 77.2 Years
5) HHS To Test Use Of Handheld Device Network For Transmitting Urgent Information About Biological Agents To Clinicians
HHS ANNOUNCES $1.4 BILLION TO STATES FOR BIOTERRORISM PREPAREDNESS
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced $1.4 billion to be provided to states this year to help them enhance preparations against terrorism or other public health emergencies. Combined with last year's state grants the Department of Health and Human Services has provided $2.5 billion to states for bioterrorism preparedness.
"Once again, we are getting federal funding for public health preparedness into the hands of our states and hospitals," Secretary Thompson said. "Together, we've made strong progress in the past year to strengthen our public health systems, but this remains an ongoing endeavor. We will continue to work with our state and local partners to enhance our readiness and our ability to respond to public health emergencies."
Secretary Thompson said that some states will need a share of their 2003 funds right away, while others will want to receive them later following the planning process -- that decision is left to each state. But HHS is prepared to rapidly release up to 20 percent of this year's funds to any states that request it for ongoing public health and hospital preparations.
The funding is part of a total of about $3.5 billion in HHS funding this year for bioterrorism preparedness, including research into potential bioterror disease agents and potential treatments and vaccines. The fiscal year 2003 funding is up from about $1.8 billion for these activities in 2002.
While most funding for states will be released following approval of their plans, Secretary Thompson told governors their states could receive up to 20 percent of their fiscal year 2003 allocation immediately in order to:
For information on how much your state received http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030320.html
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HHS AWARDS $16 MILLION TO PROVIDE HEALTH CARE TO HEALTH CARE TO 250,000 AMERICANS
HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson announced 31 new grants totaling $16 million to help communities across America create health care centers that will provide health services to an estimated 254,000 people, including many without health insurance.
"These grants will help provide care for thousands of uninsured Americans and others who otherwise would have had no place to turn to get help," Secretary Thompson said. "With more than 40 million Americans lacking health insurance, President Bush has proposed a broad range of initiatives to help as many people as possible, as quickly as possible. Health centers play a critical role in this effort by providing a safety net for patients, regardless of their ability to pay."
Today's grants continue President Bush's five-year Health Centers Initiative, which will add 1,200 new and expanded health center sites and increase the number of people served annually from about 10 million to 16 million by 2006.
Health centers deliver preventive and primary care to patients regardless of their ability to pay. Almost half of the patients treated at health centers have no insurance coverage, and others have inadequate coverage. Charges for health care services are set according to income, and fees are not collected from the poorest clients.
More information about the President's initiatives to help the uninsured is available at http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2003pres/20030211.html.
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HHS ANNOUNCES $100 MILLION TO PREPARE FOR A POTENTIAL WORLDWIDE FLU OUTBREAK
President Bush has proposed a new $100 million initiative to prepare for a possible influenza pandemic involving a worldwide outbreak of a dangerous new flu variant, HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson told lawmakers last week.
In testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, HHS and Education, Secretary Thompson said the initiative would better prepare America for an outbreak such as the one that occurred in 1918 and killed 25 million people worldwide.
"Our budget proposes this $100 million increase to build the nation's vaccine production capabilities in the event that the world experiences a pandemic on the devastating scale experienced three times in the last century," Secretary Thompson said. "The recent cases of what has been called Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome remind us all of the potential danger posed by emerging infectious diseases, especially a possible new influenza strain. This is why HHS and its agencies are continually preparing for potential new disease outbreaks."
The constant changes in circulating influenza strains makes it impossible to stockpile vaccine as is done with other vaccines. A flu pandemic can occur when there is a major change in the virus' genetic structure, creating a new strain that causes widespread illness and death. For example, the 1918 influenza pandemic claimed more than 500,000 lives in the United States alone.
"If we wait until a pandemic begins, it may be too late to act to minimize the loss of life in our country and across the world," Secretary Thompson said. "While vaccines cannot be prepared in advance and stockpiled, we must plan and prepare for an outbreak now to ensure we have the ability to quickly produce fresh vaccine that is effective against a pandemic flu strain."
For more information on the current outbreak of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome, go to http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/sars/
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LIFE EXPECTANCY IN THE U.S. NOW 77.2 YEARS
Americans' life expectancy hit an all-time high in 2001, while age-adjusted deaths hit an all-time low, according to a new report released by the Department of Health and Human Services.
The report from HHS' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) documents that the national age-adjusted death rate decreased slightly from 869 deaths per 100,000 population in 2000 to 855 deaths per 100,000 in 2001. There were declines in mortality among most racial, ethnic and gender groups.
Meanwhile, life expectancy hit a new high of 77.2 years in 2001, up from 77 in 2000, and increased for both men and women as well as whites and blacks. For men, life expectancy increased from 74.3 years in 2000 to 74.4 years in 2001; for women, life expectancy increased from 79.7 years to 79.8 years. Record high life expectancies were observed for white men and for both black men and women.
Among leading causes of death, there were declines in mortality from heart disease (nearly 4 percent), cancer (2 percent), stroke (nearly 5 percent), and accidents/unintentional injuries (nearly 2 percent). The biggest decline in mortality among leading causes of death was for influenza/pneumonia (more than 7 percent).
The age-adjusted death rate from HIV/AIDS declined nearly 4 percent between 2000 and 2001, a bigger decline than the year before and continuing a trend that has occurred since 1995. Over this six-year period, mortality from HIV has declined nearly 70 percent after increasing over 191 percent between 1987 and 1994. However, HIV remains the 6th leading cause of death for people ages 25-44, and a leading cause of death among African-Americans in this age group.
The report shows that mortality increased for some leading causes of death, including: kidney disease (3.7 percent), hypertension (3 percent) and Alzheimer's disease (5 percent). In addition, the infant mortality rate remained unchanged between 2000 and 2001, at 6.9 infant deaths per 1,000 live births.
The report "Deaths: Preliminary Data for 2001" was prepared by CDC's National Center for Health Statistics based on the data recorded on more than 97 percent of state death certificates issued in 2001. The full report is available at www.cdc.gov/nchs.
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HHS TO TEST USE OF HANDHELD DEVICE NETWORK FOR TRANSMITTING URGENT INFORMATION ABOUT BIOLOGICAL AGENTS TO CLINICIANS
HHS will begin testing a system using handheld personal digital assistants (PDAs) for transmitting urgent information about biological agents to clinicians. The three-month pilot test of the PDA network is designed to gauge the best ways for federal officials to communicate effectively with front-line clinicians in the event of a bioterrorist attack. The project will evaluate how and when clinicians download this urgent information and whether they find it useful to receive it via their PDAs.
The project will evaluate the use of a system created by ePocrates, the nation's largest physicians' handheld network, for sending an urgent "Doc Alert" message to more than 700,000 front-line clinicians, including more than 250,000 physicians -- more than 40 percent of the practicing physicians in the United States.
The test message will contain a special memo on the highest threat (category A) biological diseases/agents, which include anthrax, botulism, plague, smallpox, tularemia and viral hemorrhagic fevers, including Ebola. The message will also include Web links for clinicians to go to for additional information about diagnosing and treating the conditions caused by the biological agents. Clinicians will be able to save this information to their PDAs for future reference.
The pilot project will be managed by HHS' Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and is designed to complement the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's existing Health Alert Network, which was created in 1998 and is used by the Department to communicate directly with more than 25,000 public health officials in the 50 states, eight U.S. territories and seven large cities.
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Last updated 25 March 2003
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