Shiloh
Editor, Senior Moderator
Source: https://www.france24.com/en/2019022...rn-arm-upper-limb-reduction-defect-remera-spf
Parents search for answers over babies born without arms in France
Date created : 21/02/2019 - 19:36
Text by:
Rachel HOLMAN
Parents, health professionals and advocacy groups met in Paris for a first time on Thursday as part of a new committee to discuss mysteriously high rates of congenital birth defects in three areas of France.
The French health ministry formed the committee earlier this month in response to growing alarm over increased numbers of newborns with a rare defect known as upper limb reduction, which occurs when a part of or the entire arm of a baby does not form completely in utero.
A separate panel of scientific experts has also been convened to ?identify and analyse? the potential causes of the condition, which so far remain a mystery. It will meet for the first time in early March.
France 2 television aired a report in September on the unusually high rates of upper limb reduction in the eastern Rh?nes-Alpes region between 2009 and 2017. At least seven babies were born with the defect during this period in the tiny rural area of Ain, according to a 2014 study by REMERA, an organisation tasked by the national health agency (Sant? Publique France or SPF) with monitoring congenital disorders in the region.
With fewer than 150 cases reported nationwide each year, the number appeared disproportionately high.
The story quickly garnered widespread public attention, prompting the SPF to announce on October 4 that it had launched an investigation into the situation in Ain...
Parents search for answers over babies born without arms in France
Date created : 21/02/2019 - 19:36
Text by:
Rachel HOLMAN
Parents, health professionals and advocacy groups met in Paris for a first time on Thursday as part of a new committee to discuss mysteriously high rates of congenital birth defects in three areas of France.
The French health ministry formed the committee earlier this month in response to growing alarm over increased numbers of newborns with a rare defect known as upper limb reduction, which occurs when a part of or the entire arm of a baby does not form completely in utero.
A separate panel of scientific experts has also been convened to ?identify and analyse? the potential causes of the condition, which so far remain a mystery. It will meet for the first time in early March.
France 2 television aired a report in September on the unusually high rates of upper limb reduction in the eastern Rh?nes-Alpes region between 2009 and 2017. At least seven babies were born with the defect during this period in the tiny rural area of Ain, according to a 2014 study by REMERA, an organisation tasked by the national health agency (Sant? Publique France or SPF) with monitoring congenital disorders in the region.
With fewer than 150 cases reported nationwide each year, the number appeared disproportionately high.
The story quickly garnered widespread public attention, prompting the SPF to announce on October 4 that it had launched an investigation into the situation in Ain...
