AIDS Killing Romania’s Children

This country is in the throes of the first known epidemic of childhood AIDS caused by contaminated blood and the constant reuse of needles, a humanitarian organization says.

Dr. Jacques Lebas, president of the Paris-based Doctors of the World, Monday urged the international health community to provide Romania with disposable needles and blood-screening equipment.

“We know AIDS from people who take drugs, homosexuals, and heterosexuals in Africa, but for the first time in the history of AIDS, we are confronted with childhood AIDS,” he said.

“It’s an epidemic,” he said. “It’s on the level of famine. It’s an international emergency.”

The Romanian outbreak is unusual because it does not involve the transmission of the virus from mother to fetus--the manner in which most children around the world are infected--but from contaminated blood transfusions and needles, he said.

“In the adult population, the incidence of AIDS is very low,” Lebas said.

The contaminated blood is believed to come from Romanians, not from foreigners.

Blood transfusions are routinely used in Romania as a treatment for premature babies, sick children and the thousands of youngsters suffering from malnutrition, he said. But needles are in short supply and are routinely used hundreds of times, encouraging the spread of the virus.