CONGRESSMAN
COLLIN C. PETERSON
Minnesota - 7th District
http://www.house.gov/collinpeterson/
FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: September 24, 2001
CONTACT: Robin Goracke/202-225-2165
Peterson
Bill Overwhelmingly
Passes House Of Representatives
WASHINGTON,
DC –U.S. Congressman Collin C. Peterson (D-Minn) joined Representative Wicker
(R-MS) in passing H.R. 717, the Muscular Dystrophy Community Assistance,
Research and Education Act. This
bill is designed to fight childhood muscular dystrophy by boosting research
funding and raising public awareness.
Peterson
urged his colleagues to pass this bill on behalf of an extraordinary 9-year-old
boy who has Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. Like
many children that have Duchenne, his life expectancy is only into the late
teens or early 20s. Children with
Duchenne are typically diagnosed between the ages of 3 & 5 years when they
start to show signs of slow development of motor skills, and their legs begin to
collapse without any warning, even to themselves.
There after, the disease is characterized by progressive weakness, with a
gradual deterioration of muscle capacity, first in the legs, then in the arms,
back, lungs, and heart. “Currently,
the boy I know uses a motorized scooter to get around but soon he will need a
ventilator to breathe,” stated Peterson.
Duchenne
Muscular Dystrophy is the world’s most common and catastrophic form of genetic
childhood disease. Although the Dystrophin gene that causes Duchenne was
successfully identified and isolated by medical researchers in 1987, federal
research devoted to potential treatment options or a cure since this discovery
has been minimal. Many family
physicians and health care professionals lack the knowledge and resources to
detect and properly diagnose the disease as early as possible, thus exacerbating
the progression of symptoms in cases that go undetected or misdiagnosed.
There
is no treatment for Duchenne
even though the Dystrophin gene was first identified over 14 years ago.
The life expectancy of a child with Duchenne
has not changed since 1859 when it was first identified.
“It is time for us to focus our efforts and target funds to Muscular Dystrophy research at NIH and CDC,” urged Peterson. H.R. 717, will fight childhood Muscular Dystrophy by boosting research funding and raising public awareness. Less than 1/2000 of the NIH budget is focused on research linked to Muscular Dystrophy.
Peterson
stated, “I asked my young constituent, if he could trade places with anyone in
the world who would he be; I expected him to say a famous athlete or movie star,
but he simply answered his older brother, so he can play football with his
friends. You see his biggest wish
is to be a regular boy. Today lets
do what we can to help this little boy grow up to play football with his
friends.”
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