Proclamation 6148—National Scleroderma Awareness Week, 1990

Scleroderma is a painful and often progressive connective tissue disease that can result in serious debilitation and even death. This disease, whose name literally means "hard skin," is marked by the excess production of collagen, the main fibrous component of connective tissue. This overproduction of collagen causes the skin to harden and thicken and may adversely affect internal organ such as the heart, lungs, and kidneys as well. Victims who suffer from thickening of the esophagus may have difficulty swallowing solid food.

The course of the disease varies among individuals, and it may strike at any age. However, scleroderma usually affects people during their working years. Today thousands of Americans, most of them women, have scleroderma. Its impact in terms of physical and emotional suffering and financial loss is enormous.

Although the cause of scleroderma has not been identified, physicians and scientists have gained a greater understanding of the disease. Today there is reason to hope that improved methods of diagnosis and treatment will one day eliminate scleroderma as a cause of distress among individuals and their families. Determined to advance the fight against scleroderma, many governmental, scientific, and voluntary health organizations are working together to promote education and research in this field.

To increase public awareness of scleroderma and to recognize the importance of ongoing research into this disease, the Congress, by House Joint Resolution 516, has designated the week beginning June 10, 1990, as "National Scleroderma Awareness Week" and has authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation in observance of this occasion.

Now, Therefore, I, George Bush, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the week beginning June 10, 1990, as National Scleroderma Awareness Week. I urge all government agencies and the people of the United States, as well as educational, philanthropic, scientific, and health care organizations and professionals, to observe this week with appropriate ceremonies and activities.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and ninety, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourteenth.

GEORGE BUSH