Figuring Out The Mystery Of Thalidomide

In the 1950s and 1960s, pregnant women with morning sickness were often prescribed thalidomide. Shortly after the medicine was released on the market, a reported 10,000 infants were born with an extreme form of the rare congenital phocomelia syndrome, which caused death in 50 percent of cases and severe physical and mental disabilities in others. Although various factors are now known to cause phocomelia, the prominent roots of the disease can be found in the use of the drug thalidomide.  It ignited the anti-pharmaceutical cultural firestorm that still burns today. read more

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