Nov 3, 2023 03:15 PM
https://arstechnica.com/health/2023/11/b...-in-china/
EXCERPTS: Doctors in China are reporting a startling and unexplained spike in fetuses with situs inversus, a rare congenital condition in which the organs in the chest and abdomen are arranged in a mirror image of their normal positions.
In the first seven months of 2023, the rate of fetuses identified with the condition quadrupled compared with historic rates, according to a brief report appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday.
[...] Without supporting evidence, the doctors speculate it could be tied to a surge in COVID-19 cases, which began at the end of 2022 when China abruptly lifted its zero-COVID policy. The subsequent wave of COVID-19 ultimately infected around 82 percent of China's population, which is over 1.4 billion people, the authors wrote. COVID-19 cases peaked at the end of December, and the wave extended into early February.
About four months after the peak in COVID-19 cases, the surge in situs inversus began. The authors speculate that the virus could have sparked the condition directly, infecting fetuses in utero, or indirectly, via maternal inflammatory responses.
But this is all highly speculative. [...] And, notably, even though cases of situs inversus quadrupled, it was still very rare overall, and no such spikes were reported in other waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections, including after the pandemic first began in China in late 2019... (MORE - missing details)
EXCERPTS: Doctors in China are reporting a startling and unexplained spike in fetuses with situs inversus, a rare congenital condition in which the organs in the chest and abdomen are arranged in a mirror image of their normal positions.
In the first seven months of 2023, the rate of fetuses identified with the condition quadrupled compared with historic rates, according to a brief report appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine Thursday.
[...] Without supporting evidence, the doctors speculate it could be tied to a surge in COVID-19 cases, which began at the end of 2022 when China abruptly lifted its zero-COVID policy. The subsequent wave of COVID-19 ultimately infected around 82 percent of China's population, which is over 1.4 billion people, the authors wrote. COVID-19 cases peaked at the end of December, and the wave extended into early February.
About four months after the peak in COVID-19 cases, the surge in situs inversus began. The authors speculate that the virus could have sparked the condition directly, infecting fetuses in utero, or indirectly, via maternal inflammatory responses.
But this is all highly speculative. [...] And, notably, even though cases of situs inversus quadrupled, it was still very rare overall, and no such spikes were reported in other waves of SARS-CoV-2 infections, including after the pandemic first began in China in late 2019... (MORE - missing details)