
congenital malformations.
clinical and community considerations
two of the most significant medical
events of the century, the epidemic of
post-rubella anomalies in australia
during 1940 and 1941 and the pan-
demic of thalidomide embryopathies
in europe and elsewhere during 1960
and 1961, have demonstrated clearly
the importance of monitoring programs
to record the occurrence of congenital
malformations at group (for example,
hospital) and community (especially
city) levels.  the principle of report-
ing malformations and utilizing the
data for service programs or, better
still, for prevention, is not new, but
the methodical use of vital statistics
in a scientifically constructed surveil-
lance system is new.  so also is the
joint endeavor on the part of clinicians,
public health workers and basic scien-
tists to reconstruct an epidemiology of
deformity on the basis of time, place,
person distributions of malformations.
a primary need has been for stand-
ardized methods of classifying and
reporting congenital malformations.
