| Abstract | Every six minutes, a baby with neural tube defects (NTD) is born in China. He or she may have no skull or incomplete brain tissue. Sometimes the spine is cracked, the spinal cord protruding. Only 10 per cent of these babies have a chance of survival. NTD is the world's most common and most severe birth defect, annually afflicting about 400,000 infants, in which China accounts for nearly a quarter. But a research project by the professors from Beijing Medical University has given a hope that at least 70 per cent of NTD births can be prevented. |
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