HIV-infected babies are often abandoned in Russia. “Most children of women with HIV aren’t born infected, but they cannot be reliably tested for the virus until they are 15 to 18 months old, and many mothers abandon them in the belief that they and the babies will soon be dead. Other mothers are drug users and cannot take proper care of their children.
Russian law requires abandoned children to spend their first three years in so-called ‘baby houses,’ where they are taught to walk, talk and interact with others.”
