Mystery of French babies born with deformed arms – here’s what a developmental biologist thinks

Research output: Contribution to specialist publicationArticle

Abstract

REMERA, a French national birth-defect registry, recently identified clusters of children born with malformed limbs in three rural regions in France. Each cluster has three to eight children with malformations that include children with missing or deformed arms and hands.

The French public health department (Santé Publique France) originally suggested that these cases were not above what was naturally expected each year. Around 3-4% of children, worldwide, have a birth malformation. Although genetic, chromosomal and environmental causes – such as medicines – can account for some of these malformations, in most cases the cause is unknown.
Original languageEnglish
Specialist publicationThe Conversation
PublisherThe Conversation UK
Publication statusPublished - 6 Mar 2019

Bibliographical note

Neil Vargesson would like to thank Emmanuelle Amar, Elisabeth Gnasia and members of REMERA for helpful discussions and information sharing regarding the clusters of children in France. Neil Vargesson has received no funding for this article.

Keywords

  • France
  • Embryo
  • Toxins
  • Insecticides
  • Herbicides

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