Around 27 percent of children in Belarus are "almost completely healthy," Robert Chasnoyt, first deputy minister of health, said at a meeting held at the House of Representatives on March 3.
Around 58 percent of kids have functional disorders and they are at risk of developing chronic diseases, the deputy minister said, noting that 13.8 percent have chronic diseases.
"A 2009 survey of children’s health showed that the share of chronic diseases among teenagers aged between 15 and 17 doubled to total 19.9 percent compared with school starters," Mr. Chasnoyt said.
Routine medical examinations established last year that 9.6 percent of school children had poor eyesight and 6.9 percent poor posture, according to the deputy minister.
Currently, there are more than 1.8 million children in Belarus. Of them, 260,000 live in radioactively contaminated areas. Some 156,000 of them have functional health disorders and 45,000 chronic diseases, Mr. Chasnoyt said.
The rate of chronic diseases has been on the rise among children in Belarus since 1997, he noted.
