Medicine: 10,000 Malformed Babies

The tragic extent of the thalidomide disaster was officially confirmed last week in West Germany, where the malformation-causing drug was first synthesized eight years ago. Since 1957, when the sleeping-pill-tranquilizer was approved for over-the-counter sale, announced the Public Health Ministry, it has caused 10,000 cases of birth malformations in West Germany alone. In the U.S., only a handful of thalidomide-connected malformations have been reported, but there are more than 50 deformed babies in Canada, close to 1,000 in Britain, untold scores more across Western Europe, in Japan and South America, where the drug was sold under no fewer than 50 trade names.

The West German Public Health Ministry arrived at its figure after canvassing West Germany and learning that 5,000 thalidomide babies are still alive. Generally, one-third to one-half of these malformed babies die. Though the number of malformed infants was at last on the wane, Ministry Spokesman Dr. Siegfried Stralau anticipated that more would appear in the fall. The drug was pulled off the German market last November, but some women who had it in their medicine chests kept right on using it.