Russian Children Face 'Acute Crisis': UNICEF

A UNICEF official said Thursday that Russia's children are facing "an acute crisis" as the nation struggles to deal with rising rates of AIDS and drug addiction since the fall of communism. UNICEF representative Rosemary McCreery reported that the situation has worsened in the last 10 years, leaving a generation of alcoholic and drug-addicted children in a nation without enough resources to combat the social and economic problems. A report issued Thursday found that between 1993 and 1999, the number of child alcoholics in Russia doubled, while drug addiction among children increased by a factor of 17.5. The study also found that while the rate of infant mortality dropped by 21 percent between 1993 and 2000, there were 761 cases of HIV among children under the age of 15 between 1987 and 2000, with 87 children dying from the disease.

Other CDC News for March 16, 2001