Health Officials Investigate a Rash of Rare Birth Defects in Washington

A tragic and fatal birth defect has been reported in 23 newborns in three Washington state counties in the last three years, alarming health officials and prompting a in-depth investigation.

The birth defect, anencephaly, a rare and fatal condition that results in a child being born missing a portion of their skull and brain, is extremely rare, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The national average for this condition is a little over 2 cases per 10,000 live births. However, three counties in Washington state have been found to have had 23 cases of the tragic condition within the last three years, which results in an average per 10,000 births four times larger than the national average.

According to a CNN report, this discovery was initially made when nurses in rural Washington state began seeing the condition in births far too frequently. The condition, which tragically leads to a newborn's death soon after birth, is not something one likely forgets, and soon enough word of these rare occurrences spread enough to raise an alarm.

Nurse Sara Barron, who saw two cases of the rare birth defect in two months before hearing about other cases from other nurses, called the Department of Health in 2012, and made a report.

Soon after, the Washington State Department of Public Health launched an investigation looking into what might be causing this alarmingly high rate of a supposedly rare birth defect. However, two years later, the state department has yet to link any common environmental cause to explain for the defect among the mothers of the babies who lost their lives.

Still, the investigation is nowhere near complete. Officials are reportedly looking into whether there has been an increased rate of spina bifida, a neural tube defect that is similar to anencephaly but is not fatal to newborns. The 2010 to 2013 investigation showed that three cases of spia bifida have occured within the same Washington regions, which is lower than the national average. The 2013 numbers on both conditions will be released by the CDC in a few months, indicating if the increased average for neural tube defects on a whole continues to persist in the rural towns of Washington state.

CDC key findings and notes from the feild involving the investigation were released to the public on September 6, 2013.