NewbornScreening.com
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Newborn Screening News - NewbornScreening.Com
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Newborn Screening is the process of testing and screening newborn babies for certain potentially dangerous conditions. If these conditions are caught at birth, the child in question can be saved from potentially disasterous consequences. For example, a lab may discover that 1 in 40,000 babies tested has an inability to break down sugars within milk. Such a child can potentially die or become retarted should they be given milk in regular quantities. By screening children for this condition at birth, one can easily avoid this consequence by changing the diet of the child. This is one of many conditions which are tested for.
Newborn Screening is still a relatively young science. In the state of Ohio, all children are screened at birth and their blood samples are sent to a central state lab. The cost appears as a nominal charge on the parent's hospital bill (20 to 30 dollars) and few would dispute it's worth. In contrast, developing countries are often hard pressed to screen a sizable portion of their newborn children. For the sake of simplicity, let us assume that for a given lab, 1 in 3000 children have a condition which will lead to retardation if left undiscovered and the cost of the test is $10 per child. This means that preventing a particular child from retardation is $30,000. While few would dispute the worthiness of this expenditure, the practicality of obtaining such funding in some developing countries means that many such children are not screened.
The above example is very simplistic, but helps to illustrate the economics behind this discipline. In reality, each lab tests for different conditions as different ethnic groups have varying incidence rates. Some conditions are more serious and some are harder to identify. Methods and instrumentation vary as do the costs involved and the process of collecting samples. It is hoped that sharing common experiences through this site will help improve the overall science, as well as promote the science to those not already involved.
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