Incidence of anencephaly in Elazig, Eastern Turkey

Incidence of neural tube defects in Afyonkarahisar, Western Turkey

“…This contrasts with the years following Chernobyl, when the birth prevalence of total NTD was 6.9 per 1000 (5.5 per 1000 for anencephaly). However, investigators have reported a birth incidence of 1.5 to 2.6 per 1000 births for Turkey (Say et al, 1973;Ilter et al, 1978;Buckley and Erten, 1979;Güvenc et al, 1989). Çağlayan et al (1989) reported that the incidence then declined over the following 6-12 months and finally achieved the pre-Chernobyl level.…”

Radioactive fallout and neural tube defects

“…Following our reports, retrospective data from three different cities of Turkey ( _ Izmir/Aegean Region; Trabzon/Black Sea region; Elazıg˘/East Anatolia) supported a peak increase and a gradual decrease over the same period [7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…Until Chernobyl, there was no report on the occurrence of NTD's following radioactive fallout. However post-Chernobyl observations identified elevated rates of neural tube defects in Turkey [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Then after from other countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia and Republic of Belarus [12][13][14].…”

Changing trend of neural tube defects in eastern Turkey.

“…In 1989 the rate of total neural tube defects decreased to 10'0 and that of anencephaly to 8-6 per 1000. In 1990 the rate oftotal neural tube defects fell to [5][6] and that of anencephaly fell to 4-2. Conclusions-The changes in birth prevalence of neural tube defects might be due to the Chernobyl disaster. However, the increases observed occurred mainly in infants conceived well over a year after the Chernobyl disaster, suggesting that other factors may be responsible.…”