Detroit is the site of an important medical discovery that’s expected to reduce infant mortality.
Doctors at the Detroit Medical Center, Wayne State University, and the National Institutes of Health identified women likely to deliver their babies early with a simple hormone gel. They treated those women with a hormone gel and reduced the chance of premature delivery by 45 percent. Mike Duggan is the President of the Detroit Medical Center.
"The idea that you could spot a likelihood of that premature delivery and prevent it in really remarkable numbers it is a world changing discovery. This is going to change the infant mortality rate."
Doctor Tom Malone is the head of DMC’s Hutzel Women’s Hospital.
"Prematurity and small for gestational age probably impacts infant mortality more than anything else, and the infant mortality rate in the city of Detroit is the highest in the state. So you get an idea of how significant this study is."
Over 500,000 babies are born early each year in the United States. Prematurity is the leading cause of infant mortality.
The study is being published today in a British Medical Journal.
Sarah Alvarez-Michigan Radio Newsroom
