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Abstract
Infectious diseases were regarded as alone to cause mental retardation in 11.1 percent and together with other aetiological factors in a further 1.5 percent of 1000 patients examined. In the former group prenatal infections including toxoplasmosis, rubella, influenza with drugs, and syphilis accounted for 18.0 percent, while perinatal and postnatal infections including pneumococcal, tuberculous and meningococcal meningitis as well as pertussis, measles, influenza and postvaccinal encephalitis, gastroenteritis with dehydration, and encephalitis due to unidentified organism accounted for 82.0 percent of such cases. A majority of these patients had profound mental retardation, epilepsy, and cerebral palsy. By the end of December 1988 one HIV-positive mentally retarded child was diagnosed in Finland. He was adopted abroad. In addition, two legal abortions and one healthy child were registered to HIV-infected Finnish mothers. The early diagnosis of underlying prenatal, perinatal or postnatal infectious diseases leading to mental retardation is emphasized in order to take care of the health of developing individuals along with to prevent this type of mental retardation.