The Nation - News from Dec. 29, 1986

A newly developed vaccine may prevent the spread of a disease that is transmitted from cats to pregnant women and known to cause birth defects, it was announced by the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation in White Plains, N.Y. The widely feared disease, toxoplasmosis, caused by the transmission of a parasite from cats to humans, is responsible for about 3,000 birth defects each year, the foundation said. The potential vaccine, administered to cats rather than humans, has proved successful in laboratory trials on the animals, but it may take years for the vaccine to pass the efficacy and safety trials needed before it can be made commercially available, the March of Dimes said.