Birth Defects Monitoring System and Epidemiological Study

Abstract

Monitoring systems or services primarily aiming to check unusual outbreak at the earliest time of its occurance are widely applied in the various branch of present society. The movement of human vital events, however, shifts slowly and the level of unusual incidence seems to be rather low compared with in other branches of human society. Therefore, national statistical service on birth defects started in 1950s, which gradually moved to the monitoring service including epidemiological intelligence for 1960s. In 1974, scientists of 13 countries created a clearinghouse service of information of their monitoring systems at the occasion of meeting of European Teratology Society Then discussions were down at the 31st WHO General Assembly in 1978. They reported as follows: it was recognized that the birth defects contribute to early mortality and detract the quality of life in all societies. There is a need for further information about it in particular their relation to environmental hazards. European Community recently started to establish her own project "EURO-CAT" study, involving 18 designated institutions to monitor outbreak of birth defects within Europe. From the first yearbook of the International Clearinghouse for Birth Defects Monitoring Systems printed in 1982, several recent topics in this field; femur reduction deformity in Alps-Rhone, France; Down syndrome by type, Ebstein heart anomaly; multiple malformation classification method, and so forth are discussed.