Int'l conf on curbing HIV infection in children to open in St Pete.

ST PETERSBURG, June 29 (Itar-Tass) - An international Conference
Workshop on the theme of "Children and HIV Infection" opens here on
Wednesday, with 500 prominent scientists and specialists participating.
The conference is to be attended by scientists, healthcare organizers,
specialists in the upbringing and education of children, representatives
of social protection services, non-state public organizations of Russia,
CIS countries, and contiguous states of Eastern Europe and Asia.
Professor Yevgeny Voronin who is heading the Center of the Russian
Ministry of Health and Social Development for aid to expectant mothers and
HIV infected children, and head physician at the Republican clinical
hosptial for the treatment of infectious diseases, has told Itar-Tass,
"There are more than 33 million HIV infected people in the world, with two
million of them being children. Another 500,000 children get infected
every year and 300,000 die".
"We are called upon to coordinate the efforts of domestic and foreign
specialists and work out new proposals aimed at preventing the incidence
of the disease in children and of fatalities due to HIV infection,"
Voronin said.
Special attention, he said, has been devoted to efforts "to refine the
quality of aid to the ailing children and their families, and ease social
tension over the HIV/AIDS problem".