unitex@rubbs.fidonet.org (unitex) (09/24/89)
U.S. AIMS TO INCREASE LIFE EXPECTANCY BY THREE YEARS BY 2000
Posting Date: 09/24/89 Source: UNITEX Network, Hoboken, NJ, USA
Host: (201) 795-0733 ISSN: 1043-7932
(Reuters, September 21, 589 words, DATELINE Atlanta)
The United States can realistically aim by the year 2000 to
increase the average American's life expectancy by at least
three years and cut infant mortality by 30 percent, the U.S.
Public Health Service said.
But the service said a quarter of the health goals it set in the
1970s for 1990 would definitely remain unfulfilled by the
deadline three months from now.
The United States has fallen particularly short of its health
goals for minorities, the health service said.
In a series of draft recommendations to be formally incorporated
next year into its health goals for the year 2000, the service
envisioned raising average U.S. life expectancy to at least 78
years from the 74.9 years it was in 1987, the last year for
which figures are available.
It also said a realistic goal for infant mortality in the year
2000 was no more than seven deaths per 1,000 live births,
improving on the rate of 10.5 infant deaths per 1,00 0 in 1986,
the last year for which these figures are available.
The new recommendations mark the federal government's second
attempt to set health goals for the nation. The first set of
goals established 226 specific objectives for American health to
be reached by 1990.
About a fourth of these goals definitely will not be met, and for
the remaining one-fourth there is too little data to determine
whether they have or not, said Dr. Michael McGinnis, deputy
assistant secretary of Health and Human Services.
"In some areas, we have been remarkably successful," McGinnis
said. "For example, we have had very good success in
controlling cardiovascular disease and from heart attacks and
strokes. The successes have been unprecedented in modern
medicine.
"On the other hand, we are not making progress in reducing
infant mortality in black populations. We are falling far short
of the 1990 goals there."
Not only is black infant mortality not declining, but health
problems generally remain more severe in minority populations
than in whites, McGinnis said. On average, minority group
members are dying six years younger than whites during 1987. For
that reason, the new recommendations also include special health
goals for minority groups.
"There is a much greater emphasis in the new goals on special
target populations- Hispanics, blacks, American Indians, Alaskan
natives," McGinnis said. "We have nearly 60,000 excess deaths
among the black population annually."
The 1990 goals had no recommendations concerning AIDS because
the disease was unknown when the goals were drafted. But federal
officials hope that by the year 2000 the number of new AIDS
cases, which has risen dramatically every year, will have begun
to fall.
In addition, the federal officials are aiming to reduce the
prevalence of infection with the AIDS virus among the two groups
currently most likely to be infected- homosexual men and
intravenous drug users.
McGinnis said 20 to 50 percent of homosexual men, depending on
where they live, currently are infected with the virus.
Similarly, as many as half of all drug users in some cities are
infected. Federal officials hope that infection rates in both
groups can be lowered to 10 percent.
McGinnis said the goals reflect not only the hopes of public
health officials but current ability to control disease.
"Realism was an important criterion of the effort. The groups
who drafted these goals were specifically charged with being
realistic in their efforts. These are things we should be able
to achieve is apply ourselves and our resources in an effective
way."
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