[Federal Register Volume 59, Number 103 (Tuesday, May 31, 1994)]
[Presidential Documents]
[Pages 27963-27964]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 94-13324]


[[Page Unknown]]

[Federal Register: May 31, 1994]




                        Presidential Documents 


Federal Register
Vol. 59, No. 103
Tuesday, May 31, 1994

____________________________________________________________________

Title 3--
The President
                Proclamation 6694 of May 25, 1994

 

Pediatric and Adolescent AIDS Awareness Week, 
                1994

                By the President of the United States of America

                A Proclamation

                Ten thousand children in the United States today are 
                living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Ten 
                million children worldwide will become infected with 
                HIV before the millennium. Over 5,000 cases of 
                pediatric AIDS and 1,500 cases of AIDS in adolescents 
                ages 13 through 19 have been reported in this country 
                alone. The tragedy is magnified for our youth, as the 
                epidemic reaches far beyond those actually infected--it 
                will leave up to 125,000 children and teenagers 
                orphaned in this country by the end of this decade. By 
                the year 2000, AIDS will be one of the five leading 
                causes of death among American children ages one to 
                four.

                It is agonizing to watch our young suffer and die. It 
                is all the more painful because we have been frustrated 
                thus far in our efforts to find a cure. But we must not 
                give up hope nor stand by idly. With hard work, we will 
                find that cure. Moreover, HIV and AIDS are preventable. 
                Americans can stop AIDS with targeted, linguistically 
                specific, and culturally based prevention education for 
                people in all age groups. If we are to overcome the HIV 
                epidemic, communities must address difficult and 
                controversial issues surrounding sexuality, drug abuse, 
                and health care delivery.

                The effects of infection by HIV are different in 
                children than in adults. Infected infants get sicker 
                faster, their immune systems may deteriorate more 
                rapidly, and treatments that are helpful to adults may 
                not be helpful for children.

                It is imperative to continue the research now being 
                done to study ways to prevent transmission of HIV from 
                mother to infant. We must also develop and refine 
                treatments that increase the survival time and quality 
                of life of HIV-infected infants, children, and 
                adolescents.

                As a people, we must see to it that those among us 
                living with HIV and AIDS are allowed to enjoy 
                productive lives for as long as possible. We must put 
                aside our differences and recognize the necessity of 
                working together to defeat our common enemy--HIV. I 
                challenge all Americans to join the fight. And we must 
                educate people about the true nature of HIV so that the 
                discrimination and fear born of ignorance and 
                translated into ostracism and discrimination can be 
                stopped.

                Many communities across the country have already 
                realized the grave dangers posed to our society by HIV 
                and have responded by reaching out to battle the 
                disease. More people must become involved now, or many 
                more lives will be needlessly lost. This 
                Administration, through the Office of National AIDS 
                Policy and its Cabinet agencies, has joined with 
                community-based AIDS organizations, families, 
                businesses, professional associations, churches, 
                schools, and universities to fight HIV and AIDS. Early 
                intervention and educational resources must be made 
                available, especially to youth and other high-risk 
                groups. One in five of all reported AIDS cases is 
                diagnosed in the 20-29 year old age group, meaning that 
                these people were adolescents when they became 
                infected.

                The single most important step taken by my 
                Administration in the fight against HIV and AIDS is the 
                introduction to the Congress of the Health Security Act 
                of 1993. All people living with HIV and AIDS, 
                especially our children, must often fight not only the 
                disease, but also a health care system likely to deny 
                them coverage in their moment of greatest need. This 
                Administration is absolutely committed to ensuring 
                every American adequate health care coverage that will 
                never be taken away. To do any less in a nation as 
                resourceful as ours would be unacceptable.

                Remembering that every person living with HIV and AIDS 
                is someone's child, we must work together tirelessly to 
                find a cure. We must distribute our human and financial 
                resources across the Nation to strengthen and expand 
                programs for HIV and AIDS education, treatment, 
                research, and prevention.

                We can stop the terrible harvest of children and 
                adolescents wrought by HIV and AIDS. Working together 
                we have the power to stop this plague.

                NOW, THEREFORE, I, WILLIAM J. CLINTON, President of the 
                United States of America, by virtue of the authority 
                vested in me by the Constitution and laws of the United 
                States, do hereby proclaim the week of May 29 through 
                June 4, 1994, as Pediatric and Adolescent AIDS 
                Awareness Week. I call on the people of America, the 
                Governors of the 50 States and the Commonwealth of 
                Puerto Rico, the Mayor of the District of Columbia, and 
                officials of other areas under the flag of the United 
                States of America, to join with me in the continuing 
                fight against HIV and AIDS and to remember especially 
                during this week children and young people living with 
                HIV and AIDS and their families.

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

                    (Presidential Sig.)>

[FR Doc. 94-13324
Filed 5-26-94; 2:40 pm]
Billing code 3195-01-P