Children Born With Drug Addiction

July 28, 2008 ·It is a growing problem for newborns in San Antonio.  Between 2002 and 2006 the number of newborn children who were born addicted to a foreign substance jumped 30 percent.  Figures from the Texas Health Care Information Council show an average of 120 children who are put on withdrawal methods every year, with direct costs at 4.3 million dollars.

Dr. Fernando Guerra is Director of Metro Health, he says this is a matter of social justice.

"When you look at the disparities that exist across the community, especially by race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, level of educational attainment where people have the conditions that they're exposed to...we have to recognize that all of us share in the responsibility."

Dr. Guerra cites some of the issues a child born with a drug dependency faces when experiencing what he calls Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome.  The child has medical and developmental consequences and these infants also exhibit classic signs of illness including seizures, vomiting and tremors, but lack of funding and information and the criminalization of substance abuse means little has been done.

"We have seen these numbers increase; if this was an infectious disease we wouldn't put up with it.  We would already be clearly defining an epidemic.