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Feet of a baby born to a mother who had taken thalidomide while pregnant. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the use of thalidomide in 46 countries was prescribed to women who were pregnant or who subsequently became pregnant, and consequently resulted in the "biggest anthropogenic medical disaster ever," with more than 10,000 children born with a range of severe deformities, such as ...
Thalidomide is a known human teratogen and carries an extremely high risk of severe, life-threatening birth defects if administered or taken during pregnancy. [6] It causes skeletal deformities such as amelia (absence of legs and/or arms), absence of bones, and phocomelia (malformation of the limbs).
Widukind Lenz (4 February 1919, Eichenau, Bavaria – 25 February 1995) was a distinguished German pediatrician, medical geneticist and dysmorphologist who was among the first to recognize the thalidomide syndrome in 1961 and alert the world to the dangers of limb and other malformations due to the mother's exposure to this drug during pregnancy.
Wonder Drug: The Secret History of Thalidomide in America and Its Hidden Victims is a nonfiction book authored by Jennifer Vanderbes and published by Random House in 2023. It tells the story of how Frances Oldham Kelsey of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) found flaws in thalidomide research.
Thalidomide was once prescribed therapeutically from the 1950s to early 1960s in Europe as an anti-nausea medication to alleviate morning sickness among pregnant women. While the exact mechanism of action of thalidomide is not known, it is thought to be related to inhibition of angiogenesis through interaction with the insulin like growth ...
McBride published a letter in The Lancet, in December 1961, noting a large number of birth defects in children of patients who were prescribed thalidomide, [9] after a midwife named Sister Pat Sparrow first suspected the drug was causing birth defects in the babies of patients under his care at Crown Street Women's Hospital in Sydney. [10]
Phocomelia is a congenital condition that involves malformations of human arms and legs which result in a flipper-like appendage. [1] [2] A prominent cause of phocomelia is the mother being prescribed the use of the drug thalidomide during pregnancy; however, the causes of most cases are to be determined.
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the use of thalidomide in 46 countries by women who were pregnant or who subsequently became pregnant resulted in the "biggest man‐made medical disaster ever," with more than 10,000 children born with a range of severe deformities, such as phocomelia, as well as thousands of miscarriages. [34] [35]