Siberian American Children's Health Program

Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center
Department of Pediatrics
114 Woodland Street
Hartford, CT 06105
Tel: (203) 548-5020
Contact: Dr. Frederick B. Berrien

SACHP is a joint project of the Dept. of Pediatrics at Saint Francis Hospital in Hartford and the Pediatric Institute of the Eastern Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Medical Sciences in Irkutsk. It has organized exchanges of personnel and the shipment of medicines and supplies. Volunteers have included a specialist in occupational therapy for early childhood development, an educational consultant to the Connecticut Department of Mental Retardation, and a child psychologist.

In October 1992 SACHP organized a conference in Irkutsk on "Important Problems for the Protection of Children and Mothers." The conference included presentations on perinatal care, observations of prenatal events in Siberian women, bowel surgery in children, an overview of childhood depression, and the application of population genetics in Siberia.

In February 1992 SACHP initiated an epidemiologic study of 2,000 pregnant women and children in Irkutsk. The 2-year study will examine the frequency of early childhood illnesses and their relationship to events of pregnancy. According to SACHP "the preliminary results indicate an exceedingly high newborn mortality rate."

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