[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14515]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   PULMONARY FIBROSIS AWARENESS MONTH

  (Mr. PAULSEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to call attention to September 
being National Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Month and the bipartisan 
resolution that I and the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Cohen) have 
introduced.
  Pulmonary fibrosis is an incurable lung disease that impacts 200,000 
Americans, and for whose who aren't familiar with it, you may be 
surprised to learn that the mortality rate for those with pulmonary 
fibrosis is as high as those with breast cancer. It kills one American 
every 13 minutes--40,000 Americans die each and every year. There is no 
known cure, and there is no known reliable treatment to relieve its 
symptoms nor prolong the life of its victims.
  Eighty percent of those who contract pulmonary fibrosis do not live 
more than 5 years after receiving that diagnosis, and the median 
survival rate is just half that time.
  Mr. Speaker, I will continue my efforts in working with the National 
Institutes of Health as well as patient advocacy groups to find a cure 
for this deadly disease.

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