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New charts to assess head circumference at birth will be valuable tool in Zika virus crisis

Research

Image courtesy of Shutterstock

In the medical journal The Lancet, the INTERGROWTH-21st Consortium, led by researchers at the University of Oxford, publish the final set of charts that enable healthcare professionals worldwide to assess the weight, length and head circumference of newborns from 24 to 42 weeks of gestation, and which apply to all babies, regardless of race or ethnicity.

José Villar, Professor of Perinatal Medicine at Oxford University, who led the study, said: 'The size of babies in relation to their gestational age at birth is a very important and easy to obtain marker of their health, nutritional status, chances of survival in the first years of life and future well-being. For the first time in history, health workers can now screen all babies around the world using the same charts to determine whether their growth in the womb was restricted or excessive.'

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