Plans are under way to submit FY 2000 budget proposals on at least one of these priority areas. Priorities Asthma Asthma impacts 5 million children and is the most common chronic condition among American children today. It has a disproportionate impact on African-American children. Despite many advances in diagnosis, treatment, and understanding of risk factors, there has been a continuous rise in asthma prevalence and mortality rates. There is an urgent need to establish a surveillance system to determine the basis for trends, and to monitor the impact of interventions.
Injuries are the leading cause of childhood mortality.
There is a good understanding of causes, risk factors, and interventions. What is needed is implementation and evaluation of effective interventions on a broader scale. Cancer Cancer continues to be one of the leading causes of mortality in children. The extent to which environmental factors may be associated with childhood cancer is unclear. The incidence rates of testicular cancer and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in adults have been increasing.