Report: 8M With Birth Defects Each Year

[leftchick]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/birth_defects

WASHINGTON - About 8 million children worldwide are born every year with serious birth defects, many of them dying before age 5 in a toll largely hidden from view, the March of Dimes says.

Most birth defects occur in poor countries, where babies can languish with problems easily fixed or even prevented in wealthier nations, according to research released Monday by the organization.

But the researchers said some innovative programs in Iran and Chile show that effective preventions don't have to be costly.

Indeed, about 70 percent of birth defects could be either prevented, repaired or ameliorated, they concluded.

"We were surprised by the toll," said epidemiologist Christopher Howson with the March of Dimes, which sponsored the five-year project after doctors complained that birth defects often are ignored as a public health problem.

"It's like the tip of an iceberg that is rising out of the ocean," noticed only after infant mortality from other causes drops, he said.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

1. Better living through chemicals..... maybe not.... how utterly and

incomprehensibly sad that this is what we have brought the planet to.... I have visions of the mining for gold in S. America using mercury to do whatever it is that they do with it to tease out the gold.... we are screwed.

[leftchick]

2. and DU

I can't help but wonder how these statistics will skyrocket given the US Depleted Uranium dust all over the ME. :(

[Posteritatis]

3. I wonder which types are the most common

That'd be an interesting document in and of itself - what constitutes a 'serious' birth defect, which ones are on that list, how many of each there are, and where they tend to happen.

[donsu]

4. 8 million worldwide is no a correct figure

i 's probably 8 million in he u.s. alone



new ke board ordered and on i 's wa .
can' do number 20 and 25 in he alphabet

spell check helps