The World Health Organization has set up a Newborn and Birth Defect Surveillance network a initiative to keep a track of newborns with defects across the globe. The web-based surveillance is a network of 150 hospitals in eight countries with the support of Centre for Diseases Control and Prevention US. The initiative was taken up as one in 33 newborns globally has birth defects. An estimated 276000 babies die within the first month as a result. Yet birth defects remain under-recognised. (Read: 5 reasons that lead to early infant death) The most common birth defects in WHO South-East Asia Region
