Raelene Kambli, EH News Bureau
| L to R: Dr. Kishore P Sanghvi, Dr. James D. Shoemaker, Mr Mayur Abhaya.JPG |
“India still has a long way to bring down the infant mortality rate to less than five per cent,” claimed Dr Kishore Pratap Sanghvi, President, National Neonatology Forum (NNF), Mumbai, on the onset of the launch of BabyShield, an advanced and non-invasive newborn screening programme introduced by LifeCell International, India’s leading stem cell storage company.
Newborn screening is recognised by health experts as an essential medical test as it can help identify children who may be born with metabolic diseases even before they become sick so that early and preventive treatment can be initiated in order to safeguard them from severe harm such as mental retardation, physical abnormalities, bone deformity, liver dysfunction or even death.
According to Mayur Abhaya, President and Executive Director, LifeCell International, BabyShield screening programme can identify over 118 metabolic health conditions during birth, making it the most advanced newborn screening service in the world. Importantly, this test is done entirely in a non-invasive manner thereby making it safe for the baby and simple to implement in a healthcare setting.
“Our primary purpose is to help children with these health conditions live a normal life by promoting early detection,” said Abhaya, while speaking to Express Healthcare. He further informed that Lifecell has already screened 1,050 babies as part of their pilot project that was conducted for more than a year before the launch of this programme. This service will soon be launched across 100 cities in India. Lifecell has also tied-up with major city hospitals in Mumbai such as Lilavati Hospital, Dr L H Hiranandani Hospital and some more in Mumbai. “At a nominal one-time investment of Rs 4,990, parents can relax peacefully knowing that their child will grow to be healthy and normal,” he adds.
Speaking about the facts related to infant mortality in India, Dr Sanghvi further said that 25 per cent of child deaths happen in India. He also revealed that IEM is as high as 74 babies per 1000 babies screened. Therefore, newborn screening becomes very important as it helps to identify genetic disorders at an early stage and future complications can be avoided.
He further said, “In normal circumstances, infants suffering from these metabolic disorders may not show any symptoms until the disease progresses and the symptoms finally surface. Often in such cases it may be too late to prevent severe consequences such as mental retardation, physical abnormalities, developmental delay, poor growth and behaviour problems etc. It is therefore important to create awareness about the criticality of newborn screening as it enables early intervention and treatment and facilitates the overall growth and development of the child.”
Dr Sanghvi also informed that states like Goa, Kerala and Gujarat have already initiated newborn screening programmes backed by their governments. However, the need of the hour is to have a national programme for which organisations like NNF and ICMR are trying to create awareness amongst decision-makers of our country.
Dr James Shoemaker, Associate Professor, Edward A Doisy Research Center Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Saint Louis University School of Medicine, US, who was in Mumbai during the launch said, “Newborn screening is recommended by medical councils across the world and is mandatory for all babies born in several countries including the UK, the US, Germany, Japan and Australia. However, the national programme kicked off only after individual state governments of these countries initiated their own newborn screening programme. India can follow this example and can work towards establishing a national newborn screening programme in the future.”
Speaking about the plans for promoting Babyshield screening programme, Abhaya revealed that Lifecell is already in talks with NNF and ICMR in order to promote newborn screening programme within different states. He further went on to say that Lifecell has already tied-up with Fedex for door step pick up of samples for screening and are soon going to tie-up with around 1,000 hospitals across the country.
In future, the company also plans to increase the number of diseases covered under this programme to include around 400 diseases. When asked about future reduction in the cost of the screening programme, Abhaya replied, “We are looking at scaling up this service and with anything put in scale, the cost of screening will surely go down.”