Autism Is Linked To Mother’s Fever During Pregnancy: Study

It is well said one should be very careful during pregnancy and a new study adds if a woman is having fever during the carrying days, especially in the second trimester, the baby may have risk of getting autism.

The study was conducted by Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. It is revealed the autism risk is increased by 34 percent if the mother gets fever of more than 99 degrees during the pregnancy period.

Researchers observed 95,754 Norwegian children who were born between 1999 and 2009. It was found 15,700 children were born to those women who had fever pregnancies. Further to this, the study found 583 cases of autism spectrum disorder from the 15,700 children.

The researchers added the risk of autism increases by 40 percent if the woman gets fever in the second trimester.

More to this, the risk increases by 300 percent if the fever is reported three or more times after the twelfth week of pregnancy.

It is not yet widely researched but the study found those women who took ibuprofen for fevers didn’t have baby with autism.

Senior author W. Ian Lipkin, John Snow Professor of Epidemiology and director of the Center for Infection and Immunity, said the future research should focus on identifying and preventing prenatal infections.

Details the study are published in the Molecular Psychiatry journal.

Earlier reports too have found link between maternal fevers and autism.