‘Bizarre’ Cluster Of Severe Birth Defects In The Pacific Northwest – Officials Refuse To Say How Many New Cases In 2013

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NBC: ‘Bizarre’ cluster of severe birth defects haunts experts in Pacific Northwest — “I definitely believe something is going on… Maybe it just hit once and blew through” — Officials refused to say how many new cases in 2013 — County on border of most polluted nuclear site in Hemisphere ENENews, Feb 18, 2014):

NBC News, Feb. 17, 2014: ‘Bizarre’ Cluster of Severe Birth Defects Haunts Health Experts — A mysterious cluster of severe birth defects in rural Washington state [and] reports of new cases continue to climb. Federal and state officials won’t say how many women in a three-county area near Yakima, Wash., have had babies with anencephaly, a heart-breaking condition in which they’re born missing parts of the brain or skull. And they admit they haven’t interviewed any of the women in question, or told the mothers there’s a potentially widespread problem. […] nearly two dozen cases in three years, a rate four times the national average […] Susie Ball of the Central Washington Genetics Program at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital, says she has reported “eight or nine” additional cases of anencephaly and spina bifida […] The agencies released a report last summer detailing an investigation of 27 women with pregnancies that resulted in neural tube defects in Yakima, Franklin and Benton counties between 2010 and 2013. […] Health officials originally were alerted to the problem by a nurse, Sara Barron, 58 […] A 30-year nursing veteran, she’d seen perhaps one or two devastating cases of anencephaly in her wide-ranging career [then saw 2 in 6-month period of ~180 total births]. […] At a regional medical meeting, there were more anecdotal reports. […] CDC and state officials refused to tell NBC News how many new cases they’d received in 2013 […]

Mandy Stahre, head of CDC inquiry: There were very few of us that could spend time doing this investigation […] I’m not sure the women knew they were part of a cluster.”

CDC: “A clear cause of the elevated prevalence of anencephaly was not determined.”

Allison Ashley-Koch, professor at the Duke University Medical Center for Human Genetics: “Any time you see a geographic cluster of a pretty severe birth defect, it does make you wonder if there is a common exposure […] really would be wonderful to [do] interviews regarding common environmental exposures […] They may have eaten the same type of produce […]“

Andrea Jackman, daughter has most severe form of spina bifida: “I had no idea […] I honestly was really surprised that nobody had said anything. […] There’s got to be something. I mean, something causes it […] If you could find a way to stop this from happening, why wouldn’t you want to do that? Why would you not want to tell people?”

Sara Barron, Yakima-area nurse who discovered cluster: “30 deliveries a month and there’s two cases in a six-month period […]  I was talking to another doctor about it and she has a third one coming. My teeth dropped. It was like, ‘Oh my God.’ […] This is bizarre […] This is a very, very small area […] I definitely believe something is going on […] There was something. Maybe it just hit once and blew through, God willing. If there are still cases going on, we need to know.”

NBC’s report failed to mention the cluster’s proximity to Hanford. For more information, see our 2013 article: “Worrisome” spike in deadly birth defects around leaking U.S. nuclear site — Officials claim “it could be a complete coincidence” — No news reports mention it’s by the most contaminated area in Western Hemisphere #Hanford

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