Global Report on Birth Defects

Go to the March of Dimes website for the report.

Every year an estimated 8 million children—6 percent of total births worldwide—are born with a serious birth defect of genetic or partially genetic origin. Additionally, hundreds of thousands more are born with serious birth defects of post-conception origin due to maternal exposure to environmental agents. At least 3.3 million children less than 5 years of age die annually because of serious birth defects and the majority of those who survive may be mentally and physically disabled for life.

Excerpts from "Global Study Examines Toll of Genetic Defects" by David Brown, The Washington Post, "January 31, 2006):

Although parents everywhere face some risk of having a child with a defect, the risk is much greater in poor and middle-income countries. Reasons include inadequate maternal health and prenatal care, more intermarriage, and a higher frequency of some disease-causing genes.

The experience in rich countries over the past quarter-century, however, suggests that 70 percent of these defects can be prevented or lessened.

Interventions proven to work include genetic counseling for sickle cell anemia, prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome, supplementing folic acid in the diet to reduce the risk of neural tube defects, newborn screening for some rare metabolic disorders such as phenylketonuria, and surgical repair of heart defects. Most of those strategies are unavailable in low-income countries.

There are about 7,000 known defects caused by genetic errors. The researchers estimated that in 2001, about one-quarter of the defects were of five common types -- heart malformations, defects of the neural tube that develops into the brain and spinal cord, disorders of hemoglobin, the oxygen-carrying protein in blood, Down syndrome, and an enzyme disorder called G6PD deficiency.

The rate of defects per 1,000 births ranges from 82 in Sudan and 81 in Saudi Arabia at the high end, to 40 in France and 42 in Austria. The United States has the 20th-lowest rate, with 48.

Affluence is a big determinant of the risk. In low-income countries, the average rate is 64; in middle-income countries, 56; and in rich countries, 47.