Recognizing May 2025 as ALS Awareness Month in the City of Philadelphia.

Recognizing May 2025 as ALS Awareness Month in the City of Philadelphia. WHEREAS, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (“ALS”), known to many as Lou Gehrig’s disease, is a progressive, fatal, neurodegenerative disease in which a person’s brain loses connection with the muscles, slowly taking away their ability to walk, talk, eat, and eventually, breathe; and WHEREAS, Every 90 minutes, a person in the United States is diagnosed with ALS and another person passes away from it; and WHEREAS, On average, patients diagnosed with ALS only survive another two to five years from the point of their diagnoses; and WHEREAS, ALS has no cure; and WHEREAS, For reasons that remain unknown, military veterans develop ALS at a higher rate than those who have not served, with some studies finding that the relative risk of dying from ALS for veterans was approximately two times that seen among non-veterans; and WHEREAS, ALS United Mid-Atlantic has supported ALS patients and families in the Philadelphia area since its founding in 1977 with services that include multidisciplinary treatment centers, in-home care, durable medical equipment, assistive technology, and support groups; and WHEREAS, There have been promising new treatments approved for ALS in recent years and further clinical trials are critical to advancing ALS research; and WHEREAS, Philadelphia is home to some of the top nationally recognized ALS research; and WHEREAS, The Philadelphia Phillies have championed the fight to Strike Out ALS sinc…