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Monday, June 21, 2004
Sison: Screening newborn babies
By Mark Allen Sison
AT LEAST 10,000 newborns annually can be saved from mental retardation and death if a legislative proposal seeking to institutionalize newborn screening as part of routine newborn care in the country's health delivery system is enacted into law.
The proposal is contained in House Bill 5919 which the House committee on health under Rep. Antonio Yapha Jr. (3rd District, Cebu) approved before Congress went on legislative break.
Filed by Congressman Yapha, the measure aims to institutionalize a comprehensive newborn screening system that shall ensure that every baby born is offered the opportunity to be screened and thus be spared from hereditary conditions that can lead to mental retardation and death if undetected or untreated. Newborn screening is a public health prevention program and is defined in the bill as "the process of collecting a few drops of blood from a newborn for the purpose of determining if the newborn has a heritable condition."
In the bill's explanatory note, Congressman Yapha stressed that newborn screening is now an accepted component of quality newborn care. In many countries, he said, coverage is almost 100 percent of the newborn population. He said in the East Asia region, several countries are now currently working towards total coverage of their newborn population. He lamented that while Thailand and Korea now screen 87 percent and 92 percent of their newborn population, respectively, only 3 percent of the Philippines' newborn population goes through the process.
During the meeting, Divina Barrameda, a mother, narrated her personal account on the benefits of newborn screening. She said her daughter looked 100 percent normal and healthy upon birth. However, she said after screening, her daughter was found to have congenital defects. The findings led doctors to treat her immediately, she said. "Thanks to newborn screening, my daughter was saved!" she quipped.
Various concerned sectors aired their overwhelming support for the immediate passage of the bill. The Department of Health (DOH), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (Philhealth) and the Council for the Welfare of Children (CWC) were among the government agencies which endorsed the proposal. Myrna Cabotaje and Paul Cabugao from the DOH and CWC, respectively, said the measure would help ensure that children would lead normal lives.
Rodolfo del Rosario of Philhealth, for his part, said the agency is willing to include newborn screening under the coverage of Philhealth. Meanwhile, Dr. Carmencita Padilla of the Institute of Human Genetics informed the body of an ongoing program on newborn screening being jointly undertaken by the DOH and National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the University of the Philippines. As of now, she said, plans are being prepared to establish ten newborn screening centers in several strategic locations in the country.
Asked by Rep. Krisel Lagman Luistro (1st District, Albay), Padilla said the program is aimed at covering some two million babies a year. She added that a minimum of two hundred thousand would be immediately served once these centers start operation. Dr. Jaime Galvez Tan, executive director of NIH, said the proposed law is a notable example of research translated into policy. He stressed that the institutionalization of newborn screening "will be an important step towards the concretization of the country's vision of 'health for all'."
It was reported that newborn screening was introduced in the Philippines in June 1996 by a group of obstetricians and pediatricians calling itself the "Newborn Screening Study Group." Its research work was dubbed "The Philippine Newborn Screening Project," which became the basis for the filing of the legislative proposal in Congress. Also in support of the bill, the Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines stated in its position paper that the bill "is an expression of a well-placed political will: a concrete measure to ensure that Filipino infants develop into normal, healthy and productive citizens." The Perinatal Association of the Philippines, Inc., likewise, stated that HB 5919 will not only promote newborn screening, but will also improve access to and quality of information about perinatal care with particular concern for the underserved sectors.
(June 21, 2004 issue)
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