China Strives to Control High Congenital Birth Defect Rate

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Tuesday, September 02, 2003

China Strives to Control High Congenital Birth Defect Rate

After two abortions because of fetal defects, Gao Wenlan, a farmer from north China's Shanxi province, was happy to have a healthy baby at the age of 36.

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After two abortions because of fetal defects, Gao Wenlan, a farmer from north China's Shanxi province, was happy to have a healthy baby at the age of 36.

Gao is a beneficiary of a congenital birth defect prevention program being carried out in China.

China has the highest congenital birth defect rate in the worldand Shanxi ranks the top in China. According to statistics from 1996, the rate of birth defects in China was 9.962 per thousand and the figure in Shanxi was over 18.986 per thousand.

Heshun county, Gao's hometown, is one of the regions with the highest congenital birth defect rate in Shanxi province. The figure in the county from 1998 to 2001, before the prevention program began, was between 30-90 per thousand with more than 30 kinds of defects.

"Almost all kinds of congenital birth defects listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) can be found in Heshun and nearly half of the county's population is affected," said Liang Jinkui, director of the Heshun Women and Children's Health Center.

A survey in Heshun county in 2001 showed that a bad living environment and lack of nutrition are two major factors contributing to the problem in the county. Shanxi province is famous for its numerous coal mines, which have badly polluted the local environment.

In Heshun county, where the average annual income per capita isonly over 1,000 yuan (some 121 US dollars), people usually eat sprouted potatoes three to four months of the year. Pregnant womenare seriously lacking in nutrition.

As the county is located in an outlying mountainous area, poor traffic conditions prevent many couples from having health examinations before marriage and pregnancy. Many women take cheap medicine, out of ignorance and dire need, before or during pregnancy which affects fetal growth. Intermarriage, which still exists in Heshun county, also contributes to the high congenital birth defect rate in the region.

Apart from causing death during childbirth, birth defects bringa much heavier economic burden than even infectious diseases.

Death from anencephaly, or a partially missing brain, causes a total economic loss of 200 million yuan (24 million US dollars) each year in China. and the annual cost of Down's syndrome cases is nearly 2 billion yuan (240 million US dollars). If all the congenital heart disease cases in China were cured, the annual cost would be as high as 12 billion yuan (1.45 billion US dollars).

China's State Population and Family Planning Commission implemented the congenital birth defect prevention project in 2001.As one of the four pilot counties in Shanxi province, Heshun invests over 200,000 yuan (24,000 US dollars) each year to train pregnant women on prenatal care and provide nutrient supply and fetal examinations. They also give medical treatment to babies suffering from congenital defects jointly with the health departments.

The two fetuses aborted by Gao Wenlan were detected as having anencephaly. With the help of the county's health center, Gao began taking folic acid three months before pregnancy for nutrientsupply and had frequent health checks after pregnancy. Finally, Gao gave birth to a lovely, healthy boy this March.

The congenital birth defect prevention project is seeing positive results in Shanxi province. The birth defect rate in Heshun county has lowered from the 30-90 per thousand before the project to 29.7 per thousand.

The project will be widely implemented in the whole province ina bid to lower its congenital birth defect rate to around 15 per thousand by 2005, said An Huanxiao, a leading family planning official in Shanxi province.

The Ministry of Health and the China Disabled Persons' Federation also launched an activity to tackle the problem with the goal of lowering the figure to the level of developed countiesby 2010.

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