BabyShield- A New Painless Way To Screen Newborns

'BabyShield' a screening program that may help to detect 118 medical conditions in newborns at birth, in a non-invasive and painless way.

'BabyShield' a screening program that may help to detect 118 medical conditions in newborns at birth, in a non-invasive and painless way, was launched in New Delhi on Friday.

The screening program works by using the baby's blood that is collected from the umbilical cord at birth and the urine sample 48 hours after birth.

Screening with Hearing Tests
Ideally, screening tests for hearing loss should be conducted before the infant is 1 month of age.

Mayur Abhaya, president and executive director of LifeCell International, a stem cell storage company, launched the service along with James Shoemaker, associate professor at Saint Louis University School of Medicine, USA and Ajay Gambhir, secretary at National Neonatology Forum.

"BabyShield will bring about a revolutionary change in the health scenario in India. It will allow a newborn to be screened in a painless way and will safeguard the child from any diseases in the future," said Abhaya.

"This revolutionary facility will be available across the country," he added.

Paediatric Laparoscopic Surgery / Key Hole Surgery
Medindia provides a very interesting Paediatric Laparoscopic surgery section for doctors

"The screening process has been recognized by medical practitioners and consider it as an essential part of a health check up of a newborn child," he said.

"There are times when a baby is not detected with life-threatening diseases which can cause a lot of distress for the baby as well as the parents. The newborn screening process helps in detecting various medical conditions at birth which would help in timely treatment of the baby," Shoemaker said.

Prenatal Diagnosis/ Antenatal Counselling - Fetal Ultrasound - Anomalies
Prenatal diagnosis is now possible with genetic testing and other prenatal screening procedures. Genetic testing and genetic counselling also form a part of prenatal care of a pregnant woman.

"The BabyShield service will help prevent sudden deaths of children. There will be screenings done for health conditions like mental retardation and infant deaths," he added.

According to statistics, 26,00,000 children are born every year in India, but it ranks 153 among 200 countries in terms of infant mortality rate.

APGAR
This scoring system is used to identify babies at risk for complications or bad outcome from delivery during the early minutes of their life and determine if any medical intervention is needed immediately.

Gambhir said: "Newborn screening and immunization practice can help us solve the issue of high infant mortality rate.

Source-IANS