Proclamation 4775

By the President of the United States of America A Proclamation

Cystic fibrosis is the most common fatal genetic disease afflicting American children today. An inherited disorder of unknown cause, cystic fibrosis affects approximately 20,000 to 30,000 infants, children, and young adults. While the cost of medical treatment reaches into the millions of dollars, the costs of cystic fibrosis in terms of human suffering are inestimable.

Through biomedical research, the outlook for cystic fibrosis patients has become brighter over the years. Long considered fatal in childhood, cystic fibrosis has begun to yield to the efforts of science. The life expectancy of cystic fibrosis victims has increased well into the teens, twenties and beyond. Moreover, improved methods of treatment have enhanced the quality of patients' lives. Despite this progress, however, the basic cause of cystic fibrosis, as well as its cure, continues to elude investigators.

The Department of Health and Human Services, in cooperation with private, voluntary agencies, is meeting the challenge of cystic fibrosis with an intensified research program. Through the National Institutes of Health, the Department's biomedical research arm, studies are now under way to identify the causes-and consequences-of the disease, and to develop improved methods of detection, treatment, and, eventually, prevention.

In recognition of the progress that has been made, and of the many research questions that still remain to be answered, the Congress has by House Joint Resolution 445 designated the week of September 21, 1980, "National Cystic Fibrosis Week", a time to highlight the hope for the future that this Nation shares with cystic fibrosis victims and their families.

Now, THEREFORE, I, JIMMY CARTER, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning September 21, 1980, as "National Cystic Fibrosis Week."

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twenty-second day of July, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fifth.

JIMMY CARTER

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 11:33 a.m., July 23, 1980]