Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome in Romania
Hersh, B.S.; Popovici, F.; Apetrei, R.C.; Zolotusca, L.; Beldescu, N.; Calomfirescu, A.; Jezek, Z.; Oxtoby, M.J.; Gromyko, A.; Heymann, D.L.
Lancet 338(8768): 645-649
1991
ISSN/ISBN: 0140-6736 PMID: 1679471 DOI: 10.1016/0140-6736(91)91230-rDocument Number: 315277
As a recently established AIDS surveillance system has revealed, the overwhelming majority of AIDS cases in Romania have occurred among children. Before December 1989, Romania had reported only 13 cases of AIDS to the World Health Organization (WHO). But following the change in government at the end of 1989, the newly organized Ministry of Health requested emergency assistance from WHO is setting up a surveillance system, having heard reports of large numbers of children with HIV infection. Prior to the 1989 revolution, many parents would abandon their newly born infants, and many of these children would became wars of the state. The infants were cared for in either orphanages or chronic-care hospitals for malnourished children. By December 1990, the surveillance had uncovered 1168 AIDS cases, 1094 (93.7%) of whom were children under 13 years of age. This figure surpasses the total number of AIDS cases among children in all other European countries combined since 1981. Among Romania's infected children, 1086 (99.3%) were infants under 4 years of age, and 683 (62.4%) were wards of the state. As of December 1990, researchers had located and tested 493 (45.1%) of the mothers of children with AIDS. 37 (7.5%) of them tested HIV- positive. Researchers also found that 423 (38.7%) of the children had become infected through transfusion of unscreened blood, and that 6 (0/5%) cases were among children with clotting disorders. The surveillance experts suspect that the remaining 628 (57.4%) of the cases are among children who received multiple therapeutic injections, indicating the serious potential for HIV transmission in medical facilities that improperly use parenteral therapy and have poor sterilization techniques.