Medical aid is the most critical need confronting people - especially children - in the former Soviet Union, said Stephen Richards, head of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societie's Moscow delegation.
Richards and delegates from international humanitarian organizations, the European Community and donor governments plan to meet with ministers of the former republics in Tokyo Oct. 29 and 30 to discuss aid to the former republics for 1992 to 1993.
The Red Cross is taking the lead, along with the World Health Organizaion and UNICEF, in focusing attention on a deteriorating health care system in the former republics since 1990, Richards said.
Depleted stockpiles of medicines have contributed to the problem.
"In the next six to nine months, current medical supplies in the republics will be exhausted", Richards said.
Richards estimated that Western governments will need to commit millions of dollars to meet the medical needs. "It would cost about $75 million for one year just to provide enough hospital beds for sick children", he said.
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