Birth defect in some rural Washington state babies stumps scientists

By Jonathan Kaminsky OLYMPIA Wash. (Reuters) – An alarming number of babies in a rural swath of central Washington state over the last four years have been born with a rare and fatal defect that leaves them without part of their brain and skull, and scientists are stumped. In a three-county area that includes the city of Yakima, 26 babies born between 2010 and 2013 suffered from anencephaly, which occurs early in pregnancy when the fetal neural tube does not close, according to Juliet VanEenwyk, an epidemiologist with the Washington State Department of Health. The number of cases is four times the national average, VanEenwyk said, and health officials haven’t been able to work out the cause. \”That is the $64,000 question we’re trying to solve,\” VanEenwyk told Reuters.