200,000 registered drug addicts among Russian children

About 200,000 children below 18 are registered as drug addicts, deputy Minister of Public Health Olga Sharapova said.

Nation-wide children medical checkup (held between April 15 and December 15 this year) sets as a goal preemptive detection of illnesses caused by narcotic drugs abuse, explained Sharapova.

She added that the checkup in question implies constant monitoring of children's growing and developing in the form of thorough medical observation, careful planning for assigning specialists to medical institutions for children, preserving health and preventing illnesses.

Asked about the number of children suffering from AIDS, Sharapova said that "there is information dated by January 1, 2002, that there 642 HIV-infected children, and 89 died of AIDS."