Proclamation 5552

by Ronald Reagan

By the President of the United States of America
A Proclamation

The National Institutes of Health, which began as a one-room laboratory at the Marine Hospital on Staten Island in 1887, has become the world's foremost biomedical research center. Its investigators are at the forefront of discoveries that contribute to better health for mankind.

The National Institutes of Health provides ongoing leadership in a unique relationship among government, academia, industry, and voluntary organizations. In addition to conducting investigations in its own laboratories, the NIH supports the activities of non-Federal scientists in universities, medical schools, hospitals, and other public, private, and voluntary research institutions. It plays a crucial role in training our Nation's biomedical research scientists and fosters biomedical communication throughout our country and abroad. The NIH facilitates international assemblies of scientists and promotes the exchange of scientists and scientific information between the United States and other countries.

The efforts of biomedical scientists have contributed to bringing our Nation's death rate to an all-time low. Survival rates have improved for patients with seven of the ten major forms of cancer. The death rate for cardiovascular diseases has declined more rapidly than has that for all other causes of death combined. New methods of hypertension control have reduced the incidence of stroke. Dramatic progress has taken place in prevention of blindness through laser technology and in the understanding and treatment of genetic diseases.

Achievements such as these have been recognized internationally by the awarding of Nobel Prizes to four NIH scientists and to 81 recipients of NIH grant support.

Despite the significant improvements in health over the past century, many health-related mysteries remain. The National Institutes of Health will continue to play a vital role in solving these problems. The NIH is opening exciting new opportunities at nearly every level of biomedical research, and our Nation is proud of this great institution and its accomplishments.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 395, has designated the period beginning October 1, 1986, through September 30, 1987, as the "National Institutes of Health Centennial Year" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this event.

Now, Therefore, I, Ronald Reagan, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the year beginning October 1, 1986, as the National Institutes of Health Centennial Year. I call upon the people of the United States to observe this occasion with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN

[Filed with the Office of the Federal Register, 10:17 a. m., October 16, 1986]