The Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and the March of Dimes Foundation announce the launch of a new $10 million Prematurity Research Center here.
The March of Dimes will invest $10 million during the next five years to create a transdisciplinary center conducting team-based research, led by physicians and researchers at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania and The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, to discover the unknown causes of preterm birth and develop new strategies to prevent it. This March of Dimes Prematurity Research Center at the University of Pennsylvania is part of a “medical Manhattan Project” of five such centers in the United States created by the foundation since 2011.
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The national preterm birth rate fell to 11.4 percent in 2013 – the lowest in 17 years -- meeting the federal Healthy People 2020 goal seven years early. Despite this progress, the U.S. still received a “C” on the 7th annual March of Dimes Premature Birth Report Card because it fell short of the more-challenging 9.6 percent target set by the March of Dimes, the group said today.
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An estimated 15 million babies around the world are born premature each year and more than one million of them do not survive their early birth. Although the United States has seen sustained improvement in its preterm birth rate, it has one of the highest rates of preterm birth of any industrialized country.
Next month, organizations and individuals around the globe will observe Prematurity Awareness Month and World Prematurity Day. World-famous photographer Anne Geddes, and international superstars Thalia and Hilary Duff, will join other celebrity parents to spread the word that premature birth is a very serious health problem for babies worldwide.
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Hilary Duff, new mother to 22-month-old son Luca, is volunteering her time to help the March of Dimes raise funds to help give more babies a healthy start in life.
”As a mom, I'm proud to support the March of Dimes helping more women have full term pregnancies and healthy babies. That’s why I walk in March for Babies,” she says in a new public service advertisement. “The money we raise funds research and local programs that help babies overcome the challenges of premature birth and birth defects. Together we can help make healthier babies possible for thousands of families.”
To view the Multimedia News Release, go to http://www.multivu.com/players/English/65164-march-of-dimes-march-for-babies-2014/