STAND. COM. REP. NO.1594

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.C.R. No. 179

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 179, H.D. 1, entitled:

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION REQUESTING THE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HAWAII'S U.S. PUBLIC HEALTH OFFICE TO FURTHER IMPLEMENT THEIR EPIDEMIC PREVENTION PROGRAM TO PREVENT THE POTENTIAL ENTRY OF COMMUNICABLE DISEASE VECTORS THAT MAY CAUSE AN EPIDEMIC IN HAWAiI,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purposes of this measure are to:

(1) Request the Department of Health (DOH) and Hawaii's U.S. Public Health office to implement an epidemic prevention program to prevent the potential entry of communicable disease vectors that may cause an epidemic in Hawaii;

(2) Request DOH to report on the activities of the epidemic prevention program annually as part of DOH's annual report; and

(3) Request Congress to properly fund the Hawaii U.S. Public Health office to carry out preventive measures.

Testimony supporting this measure was received from the Department of Health.

Your Committee finds that communicable diseases would have a devastating effect on Hawaii's population if their spread reaches epidemic proportions. Although DOH should be further encouraged to address this issue, your Committee believes that this measure is not appropriate at this time. DOH is already developing and implementing aggressive programs to prevent the entry of communicable disease vectors that may cause an epidemic in Hawaii.

Your Committee believes that this measure should be utilized to address another pressing health issue, which is the spread of the hepatitis B virus among University of Hawaii students. Your Committee finds that this debilitating virus is spreading among students on University of Hawaii campuses at an alarming rate.

Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by replacing its title and contents with provisions that strongly urge the University of Hawaii to consider requiring all students at the University of Hawaii to show proof of full immunization against the hepatitis B virus prior to enrollment.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 179, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as H.C.R. No. 179, H.D. 1, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair