A mystery is hounding the medical field nowadays. More and more babies are being born with a serious defect where their organs lie outside their bodies. Doctors are clueless on what causes this disorder.
In a report it published last Friday, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that the number of babies born with this birth defect called "gastroschisis" increased by 30 percent between 2006 and 2012, compared to the figures from 1995 to 2005.
The public health agency, however, warned that the current number of gastroschisis cases could still rise. Coleen Boyle, the director of CDC's National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities, has expressed concern that the medical community has not yet gotten to the bottom of this birth defect up until now.
"It concerns us that we don't know why more babies are being born with this serious birth defect. Public health research is urgently needed to figure out the cause and why certain women are at higher risk of having a baby born with gastroschisis," Boyle said in a statement, as quoted by The Washington Post.
According to the CDC, an average of 2,000 babies are born around the world each year suffering from this birth defect. The health agency likewise suggested that the condition is linked to race and age.
The birth defect is most prevalent among babies who are born with non-Hispanic black mothers who are less than 20 years old. From this group alone, a 263-percent increase in the number of gastroschisis cases were observed during the 18-year period.
Gastroschisis has also been found to be more common among mothers who have poor nutrition, and those who engaged in smoking and use of alcohol, illicit drugs and pain medicine, suggesting that the birth defect may be related to some harmful environmental factor.
