been delivered at the General Hospital, Malumfashi,
Katsina State.
The baby has also has a cleft palate and stunted
fingers. The 19-year-old Zainabu Dahiru gave birth to
the baby with no eyes on Sunday night.
The baby's father, Malam Dahiru Umar, at his
residence at Unguwar-Sodangi in Malumfashi on
Tuesday that the baby was born through normal
delivery.
Umar, a 25-year-old petty trader, said the baby was
their first and his wife attended regular ante-natal
care during pregnancy.
He said he burst into tears on sighting the babyand
sympathetic hospital workers told him that they
could not offer any medical assistance beside the
delivery.
He said the workers informed him that his wife was
in stable condition and referred the baby to Ahmadu
Bello University Teaching Hospital, Shika, near, Zaria.
Umar appealed to government, wealthy individuals
and non governmental organisation's for support.
Meanwhile, effort to speak with Medical Director of
the General Hospital failed.
However, a paediatrician, Dr Ahmad Bala, who spoke
to NAN, said the baby needed maximum medical
examination to ascertain the nature of the
abnormalities.
Bala said the medical examination would include
physical checks, X-ray and other diagnosis that
would equipped a physician to speak properly on the
matter at hand and possible remedies.
NAN report that the new born baby and her mother
were still at home.
When shown the photograph of the baby, a
gynaecologist at the Garki Hospital, Abuja, Dr Kayode
Obende, said the condition was called encephacele.
According to Wikipedia, the free encycopaedia,
encephalocele is a neural tube defect characterised
by sac-like protrusions of the brain and the
membranes that cover it through openings in the
skull. These defects are caused by failure of the
neural tube to close completely during fetal
development.
Encephaloceles cause a groove down the middle of
the skull, or between the forehead and nose, or on
the back side of the skull.
The severity of encephalocele varies, depending on
its location.
Encephaloceles occur rarely, at a rate of one per
5,000 live births worldwide.
Encephaloceles of the back of the head are more
common in Europe and North America, while
encephaloceles on the front of the head more
frequently occur in Southeast Asia, Africa,Malaysia,
and Russia. Ethnic, genetic, and environmental
factors, as well as parental age, can all affect the
likelihood of encephaloceles.
The condition can occur in families with a family
history of spina bifida.
Although the exact cause is unknown,
encephaloceles are caused by failure of the neural
tube to close completely during foetal development.
Research has indicated that teratogens (substances
known to cause birth defects), trypan blue (a stain
used to colour dead tissues or cells blue), and arsenic
may damage the developing foetus and cause
encephaloceles.
Proper levels of folic acid have been shown to help
prevent such defects when taken before pregnancy,
and early in pregnancy. It is recommended that
women who may become pregnant take 400
micrograms of folic acid daily.
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