CHILDHOOD birth defects kill more people each year than AIDS, a toll that is largely preventable.
That’s the conclusion of the first global audit of childhood birth defects, published by the March of Dimes, a charity based in White Plains, New York. It says 8 million children with defects are born each year, 3.3 million of whom die before the age of five. That compares to the 3.1 million adults and children who died from AIDS last year.
Yet simple health measures could prevent up to 70 per cent of the birth defects, the report says. Fortifying food with folic acid can prevent babies being born with neural tube defects such as spina bifida, while women could be screened for syphilis, which can damage a fetus, before they become pregnant. Couples could also be screened for inherited diseases. Screening in Iran reduced the incidence of the disease by one third in three years.
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Cultural steps could also be taken to limit birth defects. Consanguineous relationships, such as marriage between first cousins, are practised by one fifth of the world’s population. Yet “the risk for neonatal and childhood death, intellectual disability and serious birth defects is almost doubled for first cousin unions”, the report says.
