Newborn screening allows early identification of infants with disease so that simple, cost-effective interventions can be implemented, and has a dramatic impact on morbidity and mortality. Without the appropriate resources required to build and sustain a newborn screening program, there are millions of newborns in underserved populations globally that remain unscreened.
APHL works diligently in collaboration with various partner organizations to expand newborn screening to unscreened populations. Below are some of the initiatives supported by the APHL Newborn Screening & Genetics program and technical assistance opportunities available.
Newborn Screening Global Initiatives and Activities
Ghana: Collaboration with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Sickle Cell Foundation of Ghana to provide technical assistance with pre- and post-newborn screening activities, including needs assessment, genetic counseling and education of parents and health workers, and training through the
Sickle Cell Counselor Training and Certification program.
India: Support, in collaboration with Revvity, for a Fellow's training in newborn screening and genetics testing.
Morocco: Participation in the
Pan-African Workshop on Newborn Screening in Rabat, Morocco, where APHL discussed developing a case registry to coordinate patient follow-up, and infrastructure necessary for electronic data exchange of newborn screening results.
Development of case studies on the benefits of newborn screening to educate physicians.
Provision of readiness assessments for countries' new disorder implementation.
Public Health Laboratory Capacity Building and Training
APHL can assist with facilitating the following technical assistance to support strengthening of the newborn screening system:
Workforce Development (Twinning and Training): Facilitating training in a US newborn screening laboratory to learn biochemical and molecular analysis techniques, in collaboration with the CDC's
Newborn Screening Quality Assurance Program and US state public health laboratories.
Consultation: Providing access to subject matter experts who can advise on capacity building, engaging necessary stakeholders, new disorder implementation and more.
Policy: Providing access to experts who can assist in review of national strategy for risk assessment and national policies for universal newborn screening.
Educational Resources: Presenting and developing helpful resources for quality and systems management, and the importance of newborn screening.
Capabilities Required to Launch a Global Newborn Screening Program
Representatives from APHL, CDC, the CDC Foundation, the Pediatric Endocrine Society and Vanderbilt University Medical Center convened in April 2019 to review and compare experiences, approaches, obstacles, pathways, and work in progress toward newborn screening global expansion. A
summary of this meeting details the capabilities required to launch and strengthen newborn screening programs.
Additional Resources for Global Newborn Screening
Learn More
Contact
newborn.screening@aphl.org to learn more about opportunities for technical assistance support, partnerships and collaborations.