Against the backdrop of a dangerous rise in HIV and AIDS cases among adults, the number of children under 15 carrying the deadly virus remains relatively low. But AIDS experts say that due to a lack of medicines and no unified state policy, HIV-infected children often find themselves in more dire straits than adult patients. ""Adult patients can be treated with 16 medicines, while for children's therapy only five or six medicines are available in Russia,"" said Yevgeny Voronin, chief doctor of the St. Petersburg Infectious Diseases Hospital. Together with other AIDS experts, Voronin attended a round-table discussion on AIDS among children this week, in the run-up to the solemn holiday commemorating AIDS victims to be marked on Sunday. According to Health Ministry statistics, 832 children have been infected with HIV and 102 of them have died since AIDS was first detected in Russia in 1987.