of America

A Proclamation

Liver disorders affect thousands of American children from infancy to adolescence. More than 100 different types of liver diseases, which attack these young people, have been identified. These diseases can be inherited or acquired from infection, poisons, injury, or such diseases as cystic fibrosis, anemia, leukemia, kidney or intestinal disease and glandular disorders. Infants can be born with a damaged liver or with biliary atresia, a disease characterized by abnormally-formed bile ducts. Some disorders can result in cirrhosis of the liver. Other causes of fatal or chronic liver disease include hepatitis, Reye's syndrome, Wilson's disease, galactosemia, and glycogen storage disease.

Research on liver diseases is continuing in order to increase our understanding of the underlying causes of these disorders, find preventive measures, develop better means of early detection, and improve our current methods of treatment.

The Congress of the United States, by House Joint Resolution 234, has designated the week beginning June 19, 1983 as ``National Children's Liver Disease Awareness Week'' and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of that week.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning June 19, 1983 as National Children's Liver Disease Awareness Week. I urge the people of the United States, and educational, philanthropic, scientific, medical and health care organizations and professionals to support appropriate efforts to discover the causes and cures of all types of liver disorders in children and to alleviate the suffering of victims of these disorders.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-three, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and seventh.

Ronald Reagan

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:25 a.m., June 21, 1983]

Note: The text of the proclamation was released by the Office of the Press Secretary on June 21.