World View Newborn Screening Congress

Nigeria is severely burdened by Sickle Cell Disease, with an estimated of 150,000 babies born with SCD each year. Many infants do not reach adolescence, however about 70% of deaths could be prevented with low-cost diagnostic and treatment plans. In her presentation, Professor Obiageli Nnodu discusses the future hopes for Nigeria, including ongoing newborn screening projects and learning ways to develop and expand screening programs.

The European Alliance for SMA Newborn Screening has set out a goal to have Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) included in all newborn screening programmes by 2025 To explain their position and learn more about the importance of SMA screening they have launched a whitepaper, which can be downloaded from their website. Follow link for the paper

It’s technically possible to produce high-quality genomic sequencing data from blood spot cards used in newborn screening. However, there are cost considerations, ethical issues as well as limitations in infrastructure and human resources to delivering genomic sequencing at scale. What additional value would genomic sequencing bring to newborn screening? For fresh insights, see the presentation by Professor John Christodoulou of the University of Melbourne Department of Paediatrics.