Today, June 28, marks International Neonatal Screening Day! We celebrate the vision of those who have helped make neonatal screening possible and will, in turn, encourage a new generation of stakeholders to extend its benefits to more children suffering from a wider range of disorders.
Neonatal screening saves lives. Newborn screening is a life-changing public health achievement that can save lives and help reduce the burden of treatable rare diseases accross the world. Currently available scientific evidence from world-wide neonatal screening programmes and pilots clearly demonstrates that the early asymptomatic detection enabled by neonatal screening, when linked to appropriate treatment, can be life changing and even lifesaving.
Read the press release from INSD and Screen4Rare published on this special occasion.
We hope that the INSD will become a real stimulus to raise awareness about the value of neonatal screening, as well as encourage collaboration and the sharing of best practices to continually improve routine screening and ensure the newest scientific evidence is incorporated.
For more information and to participate in the campaign visit:
http://neonatalscreeningday.org/
https://twitter.com/Screen4Rare
June 28 celebrates Dr Robert Guthrie’s birthday (June 28, 1916 – June 24, 1995), a microbiologist who introduced the paper blood spot card and a new assay to screen newborns for Phenylketonuria (PKU) in the United States in the 1960s. His work and activities revolutionised the detection of children with inborn conditions, enabling the improvement of children’s health. Dr Guthrie dedicated his life to raise awareness of the need for neonatal screening for treatable conditions.
