Birth defects are the single leading cause of infant mortality, directly responsible for one out of every five infant deaths. In this country, which can boast of having the best health care system in the world, every three minutes a baby is born with a birth defect. While genetic factors contribute to many congenital defects, the potential reproductive hazards of environmental pollutants, pharmaceutical agents and substance abuse have yet to be clearly established. The magnitude of this health care issue is indeed staggering. On an average day in the US approximately 11,000 babies are born.
More babies die because of complications due to birth defects than from all other causes.
Using one type of birth defect as an example, a baby is born with a facial cleft in this country every hour of every day of the year. This results in 8,000-9,000 babies born every year with a cleft lip or cleft palate. These mutated genes not only affect development of the craniofacial region, but also affect development of other body regions such as the heart, kidneys and brain. With over 200 described craniofacial syndromes, remarkable progress has been made in recent years with regard to identifying genetic culprits responsible for various craniofacial disorders. Genes responsible for these disorders have either been mapped to a chromosome or actually isolated and identified in over 50 syndromes.