Anne Cabau, whistleblower in the scandal of Distilbène, is dead

The gynecologist who had helped to break the scandal of Distilbène in 1983, Anne Cabau, died Sunday in Paris at the age of 81, announced Monday the French Network, badociation of victims of this drug. "She was a whistleblower at a time when this term did not exist, and without her work, the Distilbene case would never have erupted," said Nathalie Lafaye, secretary of the badociation.

Distilbene is the trade name of a synthetic hormone (diethylstilboestrol, or DES) prescribed in France between 1950 and 1977 to pregnant women to prevent miscarriage. Years after exposure in utero, it can be the cause of serious complications in the daughters of mothers treated: bad cancers (cervix and bad), infertility, miscarriages, premature deliveries … The United States prohibited it during the pregnancy since 1971.

A scandal announcer of those of Mediator and Depakine. At the beginning of the 1980s, intrigued by malformations of the uterus in patients, Anne Cabau, specialist in infertility, investigated the children of women treated with Distilbène. In 1981 and 1982, it collects data on cases of malformations. His works are taken again in February 1983 in an article of World titled "A monumental medical error: the children of Distilbène". "It felt like a bomb," says Nathalie Lafaye. "If scandals like that of the Mediator (also revealed by a doctor, Irene Frachon, Ed) and the Depakine then shook the country so much, it was because there had previously been the history of Distilbène." [19659002] Ostracized by the medical profession. The impact of his work on the Distilbène have earned Dr. Cabau "ostracized" by the medical profession, according to Nathalie Lafaye: "Some accused him of making his ad, there was even a complaint to the Council of the 'College of Physicians, finally withdrawn.' "She was fighting to make the truth known, it's a great fight that she has waged," said the president and co-founder of the badociation, Anne Levadou, recalling that Dr. Cabau was the back-to-back niece of Captain Dreyfus

160,000 children exposed in utero. Anne Cabau was part of the Scientific Advisory Board of Réseau DES France. The badociation estimates that about 160,000 children were exposed to Distilbène in utero. It was between 1964 and 1972 that it was the most prescribed. Many claims have been or are to be reviewed by the courts, some of which has already been compensated since the early 2000s. In a landmark decision in 2011, the Versailles Court of Appeal even recognized a connection between the taking of Distilbene and a third-generation disability, awarding damages to the grandson of a woman treated with this drug.