Citation

Ciment J. Br. Med. J. BMJ 1999; 319(7221): 1324.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1999, BMJ Publishing Group)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

10567131

PMCID

PMC1117076

Abstract

The UN International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) disclosed the dreadful health situation in the former Soviet Bloc. According to the report, "After the Fall: The Human Impact of Ten Years Transition," women and children in the former communist republic have suffered hard from both economic and social problems. Findings on health are particularly upsetting, especially with the re-emergence of the virtually eliminated "poverty diseases" such as diphtheria, poliomyelitis, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) including HIV infection. Cases of diphtheria in Russia and Ukraine increased to 43,000 in 1998 from 1900 in 1990. Western parts of the former Soviet Union are now suffering from the reappearance of tuberculosis (10% affecting children), syphilis (221 cases per 100,000 population), and STDs, while HIV infection rates were as high as 270,000 by the end of 1998. On the other hand, economic depression has given rise to increasing drug misuse, alcoholism, injury, and suicide among the young population. Patrick McCormick, a spokesperson of the UNICEF Research Center in Florence, which published the report, said "there is freedom now, but the children are paying high for that freedom and they are not in the position to benefit from it".

Language: en