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By VIRGINIA APGAR, M.D., M.P.H. Director, Basic Research Dept.
The National Foundation
March of Dimes
Research into the causes and treatment of birth defects is moving along today at a pace few of us would have believed possible even a decade ago.
Even so, we scientists are confronted by a long and uphill climb. We lack firm answers to hundreds of questions, but at least our questions are getting sharper and more penetrating. There are a few glimmers of light where, for centuries, there was dark ignorance. As of now, we still cannot prevent most birth defects, but there are at least four areas that show progress.
In research today, perhaps the greatest hope comes from the German measles (rubella ) preventive vaccine developed last year by the Federal Government’s Division of Biologies Standards of the National Institutes of Health. The vaccine is now undergoing tests around the world. Licensing of this or similar vaccines is expected in another two or three years, well ahead of the next German measles epidemic which will probably hit the United States around 1970.
We have known since 1940 that German measles in the expectant mother, particularly in the first three months of pregnancy, can be a major cause of birth defects.
The German measles epidemic of 1964-’65 caused defects, including blindness, deafness, heart disease and mental retardation, in at least 20,000 infants. Accordingly, if it proves successful, the new vaccine must be considered a medical breakthrough.
Again, in the area of research, medical science is well on its way toward the conquest of Rh disease. In the last decade, due mainly to diagnostic advances and fetal transfusions, mortality has already been reduced substantially from this
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