NSW: Mother's herbal tablets cause lead-poisoning in newborn

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NSW: Mother's herbal tablets cause lead-poisoning in newborn

By Judy Skatssoon, National Medical Writer

SYDNEY, Aug 18 AAP - Doctors measured the highest-ever recorded lead level in a newbornbaby after a woman who had been taking contaminated herbal tablets gave birth in an Adelaidehospital.

The baby girl was born critically ill but survived despite having a blood lead concentration25 times the maximum acceptable level.

Her 24-year-old vegan mother had recently emigrated from India, and had been takingherbal tablets prescribed to her by an Ayurvedic doctor to treat a stomach complaint fornine years.

In the nine months before the birth of her baby, the woman's lead intake was estimatedto be at least 50 times the average weekly intake of western populations.

At 30 weeks of pregnancy the woman went to hospital suffering pain and confusion andbegan having seizures and haemorrhaging.

She was found to have a blood lead concentration almost ten times the maximum acceptablelevel set by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) guidelines.

Doctors induced labour and her baby girl was born with an abnormal brain conditionknown as encephalopathy.

In most cases, lead levels even half of what the infant registered would have beenenough to cause death.

Dr Jim Fitzgerald of the South Australian department of human services said doctorshad given the child a "guarded prognosis" and she was almost certain to experience learningdifficulties.

Two of the tables the woman had been taking were later found to have high levels oflead and mercury.

It was unknown how the contamination occurred, although it was likely it was containedin a filler used during manufacture, Dr Fitzgerald said.

"This does ... illustrate that herbal medicines may contain more than one potentiallytoxic component," the Medical Journal of Australia, which reports the case tomorrow, said.

Author Dr Paul Tait of the Women's and Children's Hospital in Adelaide noted it waslegal in Australia to import herbal remedies for personal use, subject to some restrictions.

Acute lead poisoning had been reported from traditional and herbal medicines and cosmeticsfrom India, the Middle East, Mexico and Asia.

"This should be a matter of grave concern to patients who take such remedies, and tohealth professionals and health authorities in these countries and Australia," he said.

AAP jjs/sdh/de

KEYWORD: LEAD