Ukraine Street Kids Hit by AIDS

KIEV, Ukraine -- About 100,000 indigent Ukrainian children are the most exposed to HIV-AIDS, according to a report from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF)'s office in this capital.

Sergey Kushnir, 14 with a plastic bag filled with a glue for sniffing screams in the sewer where he lives on the outskirts of Odessa, Ukraine. Almost all street children use drugs.
One in five children living on the streets without parents was infected with the so-called disease of the 20th century, Jaremy Hartley, representative of that organization in Ukraine, stated.

The percentage of children in those conditions is much higher than the 1.5 registered in the 15 to 49 year old group, the worst rate in Europe.

The violation of human rights in children working on the streets takes place despite this country ratifying a UN convention in that sense and Parliamentary approval of a plan of action to defend children's rights, the official denounced.

In Ukraine, almost 11,000 babies have been born of sero-positive mothers, and 186 of them have already died.

Eighty percent of AIDS patients are below 30 years old.

Source: Prensa Latina