Swedish study: rubella and syphilis during pregnancy triple autism risk
A Swedish study just found that rare infections during pregnancy, like rubella or syphilis, can triple the risk of autism in children.
Researchers looked at nearly 3.7 million birth records and found that while rubella is now super rare (thanks to vaccination programs), these infections can still seriously affect a baby's brain development if they happen.
Pregnancy infections rare but severe
Even though these infections only cause about 0.034% of all autism cases, the risks for affected children are much higher, including up to 30 times greater chance of profound intellectual disability.
Lead author Hugo Sjoqvist said the huge data set made these findings possible, and co-author Renee Gardner emphasized that transmission from mother to child is unusual and that these infections account for a very small proportion of all cases of autism in the population.