Health Policy blog covering advocacy developments and health system initiatives around the world in the areas of:
Health Policy blog covering advocacy developments and health system initiatives around the world in the areas of:
Newborn screening is usually done in the hospital through collection of a blood spot from the newborn.
Newborn screening can be an effective way of identifying conditions early before symptom onset. For example, many rare diseases have a genetic origin and many manifest in young children. However, in absence of treatment or intervention, this can also place undue burden on the family and hinder parent-child bonding. For this reason (and others, such as economical considerations), not all existing screening tests are used in newborn panels.
Considerations on whether a condition should be included as part of a newborn screening panel include:
Condition poses a public health problem that justifies screening the whole population
There is a test available with acceptable accuracy
The condition can be identified through screening within the first 24–48 hours whereas it would not ordinarily be detected
There are clear benefits to the infant from early detection, be it through available treatment or timely intervention
To learn more about the ethical considerations involved, and how the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) community organised itself to add DMD to the recommended screening panel in the US, visit this article.
Learn more about genetic screening to support newborn health in the US and UK:
The Kangaroo Mother Care Method gets its name from the way kangaroos carry their offspring in the pouch in skin-to-skin contact.
The KMC method has proven useful in replacing and even outperforming incubators in the care of stable pre-mature and low-birth-weight babies. Recorded effects range from physiological benefits to an increase in parent-child bonding in the first years of life. The method consists of:
Continuous use of skin-to-skin position
Exclusive breastfeeding, where possible
Timely hospital discharge with close follow-up
To learn more about this method and how it was developed and implemented in Colombia, visit the blog post:
