Drug Deformities In Infants Reported

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32077, 27 August 1969, Page 26

Drug Deformities In Infants Reported

(New Zealand Press Association)

AUCKLAND, August 26.

There have been numerous instances of deformed infants having been born to women who had been taking medical preparations, says the annual report of the Committee on Adverse Drug Reaction published in the “New Zealand Medical Journal.”

It says doctors’ failure to report such cases could hinder the early warnings necessary to prevent a repetition of the trouble with thalidomide. Only a small number of congenital abnormalities have been reported, in spite of the numerous instances in which it is known that mothers of deformed infants had in fact taken- drugs of some kind during the first three months of pregnancy, says the report. “It is regrettable that this is so because the avoidance of another thalidomide was the primary stimulus for the setting up of the adverse reactions programmes." The committee urges general practitioners to report to it cases of untoward effect, even if the association with the drug or drugs thought to be responsible cannot be confirmed.

prescribing community can reactions to new drugs or combinations of drugs be detected, says the report. Six cases were reported of abnormalities in infants from a number of drugs taken by the mothers. Thirty-seven cases of adverse effects in women from oral contraceptives are noted.

Only through the cumulative experience of the whole