Fever ‘risk to unborn baby’

MUMS-TO-BE with a fever should take paracetamol to protect their baby against heart defects and cleft palate, say scientists.

It is the fever, not the virus, which causes abnormalities in early pregnancy, said the study by Duke University Medical Centre, North Carolina.

It affects temperature-sensitive cells that help build the heart, face and jaw. Prof Eric Benner said women should be told “about fever as a risk”.