Word: rh
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...surface, Joan and her husband Bob seemed compatible. But biologically, they were not. Bob's blood was Rh-positive, Joan's negative−meaning that she lacked the Rh factor* present in most blood. The difference had no adverse effect on their first child, an Rh-positive boy born in a Louisville hospital two years ago. But their second, born last year, suffered from a condition called erythroblastosis fetalis, which destroyed his red blood cells, leaving him severely anemic with an accumulation of toxic substances in his tiny body. Soon after birth, he died...
...case is not unusual. Twelve percent of all American marriages pair an Rh-negative woman with an Rh-positive man. Of the 3.3 million deliveries that take place in the U.S. each year, 260,000 result in the birth of an Rh-positive baby to an Rh-negative mother, and of these babies, at least 10% are likely to be afflicted with some degree of Rh disease. The irony is that this threat is unnecessary. Medicine has an effective weapon against Rh disease...
...first child of a positive-negative couple is usually unaffected. But if the baby is Rh-positive, and the chances are 3 in 5 that he will be, then there is an increasing chance of trouble in later pregnancies. Exposure to Rh-positive fetal blood, which may leak across the placenta or enter the maternal blood stream as a result of hemorrhage during delivery, can cause the Rh-negative mother to become sensitized, or "immunized," against future Rh-positive babies and produce antibodies that attack and destroy the babies' red blood cells...
Once, the only treatment for Rh disease was to replace virtually the entire fetal blood supply with massive transfusions before or shortly after birth. Now prevention is possible in the form of a blood extract called Rh immune globulin. Developed independently by research teams in England and the U.S. nearly a decade ago, the globulin acts as a vaccine to curtail the Rh-negative woman's production of antibodies and greatly reduces the risks to future Rh-positive children...
...John Gorman, one of the American researchers, warns that the vaccine works only if the woman is not already immune to Rh factor. He recommends that the globulin be given automatically to every woman within 72 hours of her first delivery, abortion or miscarriage if tests show that she is Rh-negative and the baby is Rh-positive. Says he: "You've got to get in during the time that the window is open...