[Clinical aspects of intrauterine infections (author's transl)]

Examples of typical embryopathy (rubella, cytomegaly) and fetopathy (toxoplasmosis, listeriosis) demonstrate the disastrous effects intrauterine infections may have on the fetus. Even if they play a relatively small role numerically, they deserve our particular attention because we feel and hope that, by extending maternity care to environmental hygiene and prophylactic vaccination, they can be partly prevented and, by improving prenatal serological diagnosis and intensifying the cooperation of specialists, introduced early to an effective prenatal therapy, thus preventing severe damage to the child.