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Program to help lower birth defects

By Shan Juan (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2009-06-18 23:44

About 12 million rural Chinese women at child-bearing age will receive free folic acid supplements from the government this year to help prevent birth defects in their future babies, according to a public health project announced by the Ministry of Health yesterday.

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The program seeks to provide folic acid supplements by the end of 2009 to all rural Chinese women wanting a child, officials said.

China, particularly the rural areas, has always been hit hard by varied birth deformities, which afflict about 1.2 million newborns in China each year, Zhu Jun, deputy director of the National Maternal and Child Health Surveillance Office, told China Daily Thursday.

Of the babies born with defects, only 30 percent can be cured or treated. Another 40 percent suffer lifelong deformities, while the remaining die shortly after birth, health experts have said.

Neural tube defects are common birth defects, as well as congenital heart disease, cleft lip, and hydrocephalus.

Scientific research has shown that appropriate consumption of folic acid can reduce the incidence of the neural tube defect by 50 to 70 percent.