[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Con. Res. 62 Introduced in House (IH)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. CON. RES. 62

  Expressing the sense of the Congress with respect to pediatric and 
                           adolescents AIDS.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 7, 1995

 Mr. Serrano (for himself, Mr. Ackerman, Mr. Frost, Mr. Gonzalez, Mr. 
  Gene Green of Texas, Mr. Hilliard, Mr. Jefferson, Ms. Eddie Bernice 
Johnson of Texas, Mr. McDermott, Mrs. Maloney, Mr. Manton, Mrs. Meek of 
   Florida, Mr. Moakley, Mr. Nadler, Mr. Owens, Mr. Richardson, Mr. 
 Romero-Barcelo, Mr. Studds, Ms. Velazquez, Mr. Waxman, and Mr. Yates) 
 submitted the following concurrent resolution; which was referred to 
                       the Committee on Commerce

_______________________________________________________________________

                         CONCURRENT RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the Congress with respect to pediatric and 
                           adolescents AIDS.

Whereas more than 743,000 individuals in the United States have been diagnosed 
        with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (commonly known as AIDS) and 
        360,000 have died from the disease;
Whereas the Public Health Service has estimated that there are currently between 
        1,000,000 and 1,500,000 persons in the United States infected with AIDS;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported 5,734 cases 
        of pediatric AIDS and 1,768 cases of adolescent AIDS as of June 1994;
Whereas, because 1 in 5 of all reported AIDS cases is diagnosed in the 20 to 29-
        year-old age group and the median incubation period between human immuno 
        deficiency virus (HIV) infection and AIDS diagnosis is nearly 10 years, 
        most of those people in their twenties who are diagnosed with AIDS were 
        adolescents when they became infected;
Whereas AIDS was the seventh leading cause of death among children aged 1 to 4 
        in 1991 and if the incidence of AIDS continues to increase, within the 
        next 10 years AIDS may become the fifth leading cause of death among 
        children of all ages in the United States;
Whereas AIDS is now the leading cause of death in the United States among 
        persons 25 to 44;
Whereas by the end of 1995, maternal deaths caused by the HIV/AIDS epidemic will 
        have orphaned an estimated 24,600 children (under age 13) and 21,000 
        adolescents (aged 13 to 17) in the United States and unless the course 
        of the epidemic changes dramatically, by the year 2000 the overall 
        number of motherless children and adolescents will exceed 80,000;
Whereas in 1994 reported AIDS cases among women continued to grow at a faster 
        rate than among men, and more than half the number of women's cases were 
        the result of heterosexual transmission, not intravenous drug use;
Whereas the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that 
        approximately 110,000 women in the United States are infected with HIV 
        and an estimated 7,000 are expected to give birth to children each year, 
        and approximately 1,500 to 2,000 of these children will be infected with 
        HIV;
Whereas more than 88 percent of children with AIDS have a parent with, or at 
        risk for, HIV infection;
Whereas 24 percent of reported pediatric AIDS cases in the United States have 
        occurred in New York City, and the South Bronx has the highest HIV 
        seroprevalence rate among newborns in the United States;
Whereas Philadelphia ranks among American cities most impacted by reported AIDS 
        cases among children age 0 to 13, and these children belong to an 
        estimated 1,400 HIV affected families; and
Whereas ethnic minorities are disproportionately affected by AIDS, with 74 
        percent of women with AIDS and 79 percentum of children with AIDS being 
        African-American or Hispanic: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), 
That it is the sense of Congress that--
            (1) it is important that the people of the United States 
        diligently seek preventative measures and better solutions to 
        care for women and youth, including helping them gain access to 
        HIV services and treatment and other sexually transmitted 
        disease clinical therapies;
            (2) early intervention and education resources must be made 
        available to all citizens, especially youth and other high-risk 
        groups, to make them more aware of AIDS and the risks 
        associated with engaging in unprotected sexual activity or 
        substance abuse;
            (3) the Health Care Financing Administration and the Public 
        Health Service should work with appropriate State officials to 
        help design optimal care packages needed for children, youth, 
        and families with AIDS or HIV infection especially as health 
        care system reforms are undertaken; and
            (4) States and localities should recognize relatives, 
        extended family members, and other nonbiological relatives as 
        an appropriate source of foster care for children with AIDS 
        whose parents can no longer care for them, subject to the same 
        review and afforded the same benefits as other foster parents.
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