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| Expanded Newborn Screening is NOW AVAILABLE. (Photo: Newborn Screening Reference Center, @newbornscreenph) |
The Newborn Screening Reference Center (NSRC) has released a list of facilities offering Expanded Newborn Screening (eNBS). Early this year, the expanded NBS program started and this allowed the screening of hemoglobinopathies and additional metabolic disorders, namely organic acid, fatty acid oxidation, and amino acid disorders. All these conditions can be treated at birth, avoiding complications of no treatment.
Expanded newborn screening is optional. This makes newborn screening to be offered to parents in all participating facilities with the following options:
Option 1: Six (6) disorders (CH, CAH, GAL, PKU, G6PD, and MSUD) at P 550.
Option 2: The full complement of the disorders at P 1,500
The cost of newborn screening, which is now at P 550, is presently included in the newborn care package for members of PhilHealth.
The following is the list of Newborn Screening Facilities offering Expanded Newborn Screening as of October 2015.
MedTalk (Solar News/9 News and Current Affairs/CNN Philippines)
The following is the list of Newborn Screening Facilities offering Expanded Newborn Screening as of October 2015.
The NSRC also released brochures on eNBS for parents and health practitioners. The following is the brochure for parents in Filipino.
The other eNBS brochures are available online through the NSRC website (newbornscreening.ph).
About the NSRC
The Newborn Screening Reference Center (NSRC) is an office under the National Institutes of Health (NIH), University of the Philippines Manila created under RA 9288.
NSRC provides technical assistance to the DOH-NIH network in reaching the ultimate goal of screening Filipino newborns for common life-threatening heritable disorders. NSRC provides information and resources in the area of newborn screening to benefit health professionals, the public health community, consumers and government officials.
