France: Scientists tear up around malformed babies – World



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French regions where the rate of babies born with malformations would be higher than in others. The scientist Emmanuelle Amar, who heads Remera, the oldest of the six registries of conbad malformations in France, based in Lyon, who gave the alert.

If she received the support of two former Ecology ministers, Delphine Batho and Corinne Lepage as well as Green MEP Michèle Rivasi on Thursday at a press conference in Paris, which calls her "whistleblower" She has powerful detractors as well. This is the case of the epidemiologist Ségolène Aymé, research director emeritus at Inserm, who castigates outright the "lies" and "irresponsible attitude" of Emmanuelle Amar.

Attacks that she considers "slanderous". Emmanuelle Amar directs the Remera founded in 1973 after the scandal of thalidomide, anti-nauseous which had born thousands of children without arms between 1957 and 1962. The register has helped to show the consequences of taking the antiepileptic Dépakine during pregnancy.

In Brittany and Loire-Atlantique

This summer, he revealed that several babies were born in recent years without hands, arms or forearms in a restricted area of ​​Ain (7 births between 2009 and 2014).
Two other groups of cases were observed, in Loire-Atlantique (3 between 2007 and 2008) and in Brittany (4 between 2011 and 2013).

After an inquiry, the public health agency France concluded in early October that the number of Ain cases was not statistically higher than the national average.
Conversely, there is, according to her, an excess of cases in Loire-Atlantique and Brittany, but which remain unexplained.

The Remera is in danger because it has been removed two major funding, including that of Inserm. It remains only the funds of Public Health France and the Agency of Medicines (ANSM), or 115'000 euros per year while it would take 250'000, according to its director who will be auditioned Tuesday at the National Assembly.
 
Emmanuelle Amar can however count on the support of Remera's scientific council, which denounced in a statement "odious attacks". "He is a brilliant person, who has courage and stubbornness," says Elisabeth Gnansia, president of the scientific council and former director of Remera.
(Afp / nxp)

Created: 19.10.2018, 22:55

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