The infant mortality rate had not significantly decreased during the 12th health plan, as compared to other industrial nations. New cases of congenital anomalies affected about 60,000 children every year and chronic diseases affected 20 percent of children younger than 15 years old. By the time children finished secondary education, the number with chronic diseases increased to 60 percent. Divorce and single-parent families affected about 20 percent of children, increasing their susceptibility to illness. Nosocomial infections (contracted as a result of being hospitalized) also increased during Perestroika. In 1990, more than 30,000 cases of septicemia were reported in hospitals among infants less than one month old, about 12,000 puerperal, and 27,000 postoperative infections. The greater flow of information during Perestroika permitted the official reporting of AIDS as a national concern. By July 1991, there were 1242 registered cases of HIV infections, half of which were children under 14 years of age (Vestnik Statistiki, 1991).