The World - News from Jan. 29, 1989

Nearly 3,000 Soviet children will be tested for AIDS because of the infection of at least 27 infants and four mothers while being treated at a Moscow-area hospital, the newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda said. Authorities suspect poor sanitary conditions and the possible reuse of disposable syringes. The paper also quoted Vladimir Pokrovsky, head of a special AIDS research laboratory, as saying that acquired immune deficiency syndrome is spreading in the Soviet Union, where the public is generally indifferent to the deadly disease. “The epidemic has entered our country,” Pokrovsky said. “It is gathering speed, and we now have 146 virus carriers.”