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Thalidomide brought on changes in the way drugs are tested, what type of drugs are used during pregnancy, and increased the awareness of potential side effects of drugs. According to Canadian news magazine programme W5 , most, but not all, victims of thalidomide receive annual benefits as compensation from the Government of Canada .
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]
The directive was a reaction [citation needed] to the Thalidomide tragedy in the early 1960s, when thousands of babies were born with deformities as a result of their mothers taking the drug during pregnancy.
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).
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.
Teratology is the study of abnormalities of physiological development in organisms during their life span. It is a sub-discipline in medical genetics which focuses on the classification of congenital abnormalities in dysmorphology caused by teratogens and also in pharmacology and toxicology.
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Download as PDF; Printable version; In other projects Wikidata item; Appearance. ... see thalidomide. Very common (may affect more than 1 in 10 people)