While the cause of the defects are unknown, research has shown that exposure of the mother to certain chemicals or medication during the pregnancy can increase the risk (AFP Photo/LOIC VENANCE) |
Paris (AFP) - Eleven more cases of babies born with missing or malformed arms in France have come to light, the public health authority said Tuesday, adding to a medical phenomenon for which no cause has been found.
The 11
additional cases were identified through hospital records in the Ain area, near
the Swiss border, between 2000 and 2014.
Ain is one
of the three French "departments" or administrative areas where cases
of the upper limb deformities have been registered, along with Brittany on the
West coast and Loire-Atlantique, south of Brittany.
Last week,
France's Health Minister Agnes Buzyn announced a new investigation into the
birth defects of 14 babies born with stunted or missing arms since 2007, half
of them in Ain.
In an
October 4 report, France's public health agency said it had found no
"common exposure" to substances that could explain the deformities.
While the
cause of the defects are unknown, research has shown that exposure of the
mother to certain chemicals or medication during the pregnancy can increase the
risk.
Last week,
Buzyn told French news channel LCI that environmental experts would join health
experts in investigating the cases to try to shed light on the phenomenon.
In the
1950s and 1960s, thousands of babies around the world were born with missing or
stunted limbs linked to the use of the drug thalidomide, which was used to
treat nausea in pregnant women. It was banned in the 1960s.
No comments:
Post a Comment