as high as 2–5% of younger school children in the US and Western Europe. The highest rates of FAS and partial FAS have been reported from South Africa where alarming rates between 68.0 and 89.2 per 1000 have been found in a mixed race population with a historically high prevalence of risk drinking (May et al. 2007). Other countries also report fairly high prevalence rates of FASD. For example, in Croatia the estimated prevalence of FAS is 6.44 per 1000 and 34.3 per 1000 for pFAS (Petković and Barisić 2010). In the Lazio region of Italy the rate of FAS was 3.7 to 7.4 per 1000 children and the rate of FASD was 20.3 to 40.5 per 1000 (May et al. 2006). This would mean that between 2.3 and 4.1% of all children in this region are affected by prenatal alcohol exposure. Obviously, additional surveillance studies are needed to sort out the true prevalence of FASD in various populations, but even conservative estimates provide reason for serious concern. Recently, the World Health Organization convened a meeting to establish procedures for a surveillance study based upon in-school screeners, with a focus on developing countries.
