Surveillance of congenital anomalies in Hungary.

Surveillance of congenital anomalies has various functions viz. monitoring (to detect clusters as soon as possible), registering (to contribute to medical care and to provide material for scientific research) and informative. The Hungarian Congenital Malformation Register records the occurrence of malformed babies diagnosed from birth to 1 year of age. The Register has 3 sources (obstetricians, paediatricians, pathologists) and has registered since 1971 over 4000 malformed infants annually, an occurrence of over 28%. Validity and completeness of notification depend on the type of malformation. A separate Monitor started on January 1st, 1973, is confined to congenital malformations detectable unequivocally and readily during the first seven days of life. So far four real clusters occurred in Hungary but their causes could not be found. Particular stress has been laid upon multiple malformations (syndromes) since all known teratogens affecting humans produce multiple malformations.