text: Measles exposure can lead to bowel disease - study . LONDON 1996-08-23 Women who get measles while pregnant may have babies at higher risk of Crohn 's disease , a debilitating bowel disorder , researchers said on Friday . Three out of four Swedish babies born to mothers who caught measles developed serious cases of Crohn 's disease , the researchers said . Dr Andrew Wakefield of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine and colleagues screened 25,000 babies delivered at University Hospital , Uppsala , between 1940 and 1949 . Four of the mothers had measles while pregnant . " Three of the four children had Crohn 's disease , " Wakefield 's group wrote in the Lancet medical journal . Crohn 's is an inflammation of the bowel that can sometimes require surgery . It causes diarrhoea , abdominal pain and weight loss . The researchers said the three children involved had especially severe cases . Exposure to viruses can often cause birth defects . Most notably , women who get rubella ( German measles ) have a high risk of a stillborn baby .