21 September 2018

Screening of newborn helps flag diseases the child may be prone to

New­born screen­ing has not been a pri­or­ity among In­dian par­ents, but if it is done, it can help de­tect dis­eases which the child may be sus­cep­ti­ble to later in life, said doc­tors.

“It is stated that ev­ery 64th new­born in­her­its a genetic disease from the fam­ily. An early di­ag­nos­tic test (via blood or urine) per­formed within 72 hours of a child’s birth, can help iden­tify the causes and de­tect the pos­si­ble higher risk of de­vel­op­ing dis­or­ders among in­fants such as per­ma­nent neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders and phys­i­cal da­m­age,” Triv­it­ron Health­care Chair­man and MD Dr GSK Velu said on Thurs­day.

“It is stated that ev­ery 64th new­born in­her­its a genetic disease from the fam­ily. An early di­ag­nos­tic test (via blood or urine) per­formed within 72 hours of a child’s birth, can help iden­tify the causes and de­tect the pos­si­ble higher risk of de­vel­op­ing dis­or­ders among in­fants such as per­ma­nent neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders and phys­i­cal da­m­age,” Triv­it­ron Health­care Chair­man and MD Dr GSK Velu said on Thurs­day.

“It is stated that ev­ery 64th new­born in­her­its a genetic disease from the fam­ily. An early di­ag­nos­tic test (via blood or urine) per­formed within 72 hours of a child’s birth, can help iden­tify the causes and de­tect the pos­si­ble higher risk of de­vel­op­ing dis­or­ders among in­fants such as per­ma­nent neu­ro­log­i­cal dis­or­ders and phys­i­cal da­m­age,” Triv­it­ron Health­care Chair­man and MD Dr GSK Velu said on Thurs­day.

Septem­ber is con­sid­ered New­born Screen­ing Month. He said that there is a need to cre­ate aware­ness about new­born screen­ing and the best way is through gov­ern­ment programmes and the only way to achieve it is by mak­ing new­born screen­ing a con­sti­tu­tional man­date, for a safer and health­ier to­mor­row.

Septem­ber is con­sid­ered New­born Screen­ing Month. He said that there is a need to cre­ate aware­ness about new­born screen­ing and the best way is through gov­ern­ment programmes and the only way to achieve it is by mak­ing new­born screen­ing a con­sti­tu­tional man­date, for a safer and health­ier to­mor­row.

“New­born screen­ing is a pre­ven­tive step to re­duce in­fant mor­tal­ity. This is done by iden­ti­fy­ing genetic dis­or­ders that are in­her­ited and also those which are caused by the en­vi­ron­ment,” said Dr Vinod Jain, se­nior fac­ulty KGMU and a pub­lic health ex­pert.

“New­born screen­ing is a pre­ven­tive step to re­duce in­fant mor­tal­ity. This is done by iden­ti­fy­ing genetic dis­or­ders that are in­her­ited and also those which are caused by the en­vi­ron­ment,” said Dr Vinod Jain, se­nior fac­ulty KGMU and a pub­lic health ex­pert.

In­fants can be saved from health com­pli­ca­tions such as men­tal re­tar­da­tion, se­vere ane­mia and lac­tose intolerance with the help of timely iden­ti­fi­ca­tion and med­i­cal in­ter­ven­tion.