France has launched a national investigation after parents contacted each other on social media as they found that in a certain region a lot of babies were born with missing arms or hands.
The findings have enraged many as it happened only weeks after an initial government inquiry in a similar matter, in another region, closed.
A first official investigation had begun after it emerged more than a dozen children had been born with the condition in clusters in two French regions between 2009 and 2014.
Health authorities failed to identify a common cause but many internet conspiracy theories about a certain pharmaceutical preparation taken during pregnancy or even tampering with the water in the area surfaced.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="fr" dir="ltr">Bébés nés sans bras en France: 11 cas supplémentaires identifiés dans l’Ain <a href="https://t.co/QCtePLMJYV">https://t.co/QCtePLMJYV</a> <a href="https://t.co/XNQE0x4PyV">pic.twitter.com/XNQE0x4PyV</a></p>— Le Soir (@lesoir) <a href="https://twitter.com/lesoir/status/1057317406937436160?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 30, 2018</a></blockquote>
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As now a further 11 cases emerged in the eastern region of Ain this year, officials were urged to open a fresh inquiry.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">France's national public health is investigating babies who are born without or only partial upper extremities. <a href="https://t.co/rKjGj9pPD8">https://t.co/rKjGj9pPD8</a></p>— JenniL (@JSno_Buni) <a href="https://twitter.com/JSno_Buni/status/1057988827913076737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
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The condition means that a foetus fails to form correctly during pregnancy and the child is born missing upper limbs, missing forearms, and hands, or fingers.
There are now three regions in France where the cases are set to have happened: the rural Ain area not far from the Swiss border (where it was discovered only recently), as well as in Brittany and Loire-Atlantique, two regions on the north-west coast where the government launched an investigation into the births between 2009 and 2014.
Health Minister Ms Agnès Buzyn has assured worried French parents that the government would initiate a further investigation as the report lacks detailed explanations. The case has caused continued public concern and widespread media coverage.
Ms Buzyn: "I think all of France wants to know."
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">The cluster of incompetency in Santé Publique France widens even faster than the cluster of arm defects in Ain. Super, super fast.<br> <a href="https://t.co/3b0eN1F7hG">https://t.co/3b0eN1F7hG</a></p>— Mathilde POIZAT-AMAR (@mpoizatamar) <a href="https://twitter.com/mpoizatamar/status/1058001915102068737?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">November 1, 2018</a></blockquote>
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"We don't want to rule anything out. Perhaps it's do with the environment, or something they ate, or something they drank. Perhaps it's what they breathed - right now I just don't know."
All the cases reported in Ain, near the Swiss border involve people living in an 11 mile radius the small village known as Druillat. Many believe that a faulty water pipe or the possible influence of pesticides used could be involved.
Geneticist Dr Elizabeth Gnansia stated that the great number was highly alarming: "Let's imagine they are born between 2009 and 2014, which is five years, can you imagine that in a small rural school seven infants are in the same school with a type of amputation of forearm? We don't need statistics for that. It's highly significant. It's 50 times what you expect."
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Many years ago there were many babies born without arms or legs in America, due to a drug that was released to the public and approved by the FDA called thylidamine. Not sure this is the correct spelling. It was taken off the market but not until countless, lifelong, irreversible tragedy for these infants. So much for testing new drugs, and falsely approving the safety of same.