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Babies infected in the womb are three times more likely to develop autism, landmark Swedish study finds

From the Newshound archive · first published 22 September 2026.

A pregnant woman like those whose babies face a roughly one-in-five chance of developing autism if born with a congenital TORCH infection, which can cross the placenta and harm the developing fetal brain.
A pregnant woman like those whose babies face a roughly one-in-five chance of developing autism if born with a congenital TORCH infection, which can cross the placenta and harm the developing fetal brain.

A landmark Swedish study tracking 3.7 million births over thirty years has found that congenital TORCH infections are associated with sharply higher rates of autism and intellectual disability in affected children. About one in five children with such an infection developed autism — roughly three times the rate seen in the general population. Karolinska Institutet researchers drew on Sweden's national health records, following subjects for as long as three decades, and published their results in JAMA Pediatrics.

TORCH infections — including cytomegalovirus, rubella and toxoplasma — can cross the placental barrier and infect a developing fetus.

Children born with a TORCH infection were more than seven times as likely to receive an intellectual disability diagnosis as unaffected children, and up to 30 times more likely to be diagnosed with a severe or profound disability.

The infections are rare, accounting for just 0.034% of all autism cases in Sweden — yet the researchers stress that the risk to any individual affected child is 'clearly elevated'.

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