This Year in Canada...

330,000 babies will be born. (www.statcan.ca)

10 of these babies might become HIV positive.
141 neonatal cases per 4 million births per year in U.S. (CDC National HIV 2003 Surveillance Report)  Only 161 new cases among all children under 13 in the U.S. in 2003 (AVERT.org)

110 of these babies will be born with Muscular Dystrophy.
1 in 3,200 (Muscular Dystrophy Association)

253 of these babies will have Spina Bifida.
1 in 1,300 (American Association of Neurological Surgeons)

330 of these babies will be born with Down Syndrome.
1 in 1,000 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)

643 of these babies will have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome.
19.5 per 10,000  (National Organization. of Fetal Alcohol Syndrome)

3,300 babies will be born with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder.  

1 in 100 (Teratology 1997 Nov;56(5):317-26)

The comprehensive lifetime cost of just one baby with FAS could be as much as $6 million ($5 million US). (FAS Community Resource Center)

The projected cost to Canada of caring for the estimated 280,000 Canadians living with FASD over their lifetimes is approximately $420 billion (Canada's Secretary of State for Children and Youth).

As noted by the Institute of Medicine's 1996 Report to Congress on FAS: "These incidence figures are offered not as established facts but to emphasize the magnitude of a problem that has serious implications - for the individual and for society. " (Executive Summary of the IOM Report)