- The ARC - California Edition -

Food for Preventive Thought

The 47th annual state convention of Arc California will be held at the Red Lion Hotel, 222 N. Vineyard in the city of Ontario, California on March 14 and 15, 1997. The theme will be "Shock Waves". There also will be a one-day topical pre-conference on March 13th designed to discuss criminal justice issues affecting persons with mental retardation and other disabilities.

Workshops will include: "A Legislative Update", "Fund Raising in the 90’s", "Forming a Local Trust", "Am I Libel?", and "Supplemental Security Income (SSI) What is it Really?". The plenary sessions will be "Managed Care for People with Developmental Disabilities", and "System Reform - Is it Time?".

The Prevention Luncheon will be held on Friday at which time chapter donations toward the national Arc Research and Prevention Fund will be collected. Saturday will include a Senior breakfast, a membership breakfast, and the annual banquet. Call Arc California at 1-800-698-6619 for registration information.

Birth Defects Information on the Internet. There are home sites on the internet where you may obtain copies of the information referenced on the birth defects bibliography listed on page 7 of this newsletter. Free copies of articles from the FDA Consumer may be obtained from:
http://www.fda.gov/fdac/fdacindex.html

The Arc of the United States provides free access to copies of all of their Q&As listed in the bibliography. The Arc’s home page also contains links to other potential sources of materials concerning mental retardation and other birth defects. The Arc’s home page may be reached at the following internet address:
http://www.thearc.org

Number of Measles Cases Drops to New Low. The measles cases in North and South America has taken a very significant drop during 1996 and has reached an all time low. The Americas experienced 6,489 cases of measles in 1995 and it appears that there will be about 1,300 cases in 1996. The Pan American Health Organization is currently attempting to raise enough money to make a final push to eradicate measles in the Americas by the year 2000.

The 1996 Albert Lasker Clinical Medical Research Award was presented to four doctors for their work which led to the virtual elimination of the infections caused by Haemophilus Influenzae type b.

Since the availability of the vaccines these doctors developed, meningitis (a common and serious infection of children caused by Hib) has been almost entirely eliminated in the United States, Canada, France, Iceland, Germany, Scandinavia, and the United Kingdom.

Before antibiotics became available following World War II, Hib meningitis was almost always fatal. Despite antibiotics, 5% of the patients continued to die and 30% were permanently injured. With the capability to treat Hib meningitis via antibiotics, this disease became the leading cause of acquired mental retardation among survivors.

Prior to vaccinations becoming available, the incidence of Hib infection in the United States was 1 case in every 250 births, which is similar to the rate of paralytic polio.

Mark Your Calendar. The 47th annual national convention of The Arc will be held in Salt Lake City, Utah. The dates for the main convention are November 6 through 8, 1997. It will be at the Marriot/Red Lion Hotels. Since the convention will be in Utah, and since the state contains some very beautiful terrain, make plans now to visit their numerous state and national parks and to take some vacation time just to see this beautiful country. You will never forget it.