1.7 out of 100 babies born with congenital deformities

A total of 1.7 out of 100 newborn babies in Korea have congenital deformities, according to a survey by researchers at Dankook University. The research team, led by Prof. Koh Kyung-Shim, disclosed Friday that out of 42,015 newborns delivered from April 1999 to October 2000 at seven hospitals, including Seoul National University Hospital, 1.7 percent or 722 were found to be malformed.

The study was one of several commissioned last year by the Korea Food and Drug Safety Agency as part of efforts to determine the causes of endocrine disorders. Results of the study showed that the bulk of the deformities were Down`s Syndrome or harelip (44 cases each), which combined to account for 10.5 cases out of 10,000 births. The incidence of Down`s syndrome was nearly equal to that in the United States (10) and more than double the figure for Japan (4.9).

Prof. Koh noted that when the embryos were diagnosed as malformed, artificial abortions were widely performed and miscarriages or stillbirths resulted in 31 percent of the cases. The congenital deformities were attributed to abnormal chromosomes in 13.4 percent of the cases, hereditary syndrome in 3.3 percent and unknown organic reasons in 83.2 percent.

Congenital malformation in a newborn is a structural deformity resulting from genetic and chromosomal abnormalities or environmental causes. Such disfigurement is on the rise in fast-developing industrial countries.

[Yonhap]