Newborn screening saves lives—it’s that simple. To date, over 40 million babies have been screened in the United States alone. Over the years, we’ve continued to expand our efforts globally to identify, and possibly even cure, as many newborns as possible.
Wisconsin was an early adapter of newborn testing, and in 2007, we agreed to fund half of the pilot program to screen for SCID in the state. The pilot began in January 2008 and tested 10,000 newborns over the course of the program. During this pilot, one child with SCID was identified and cured, motivating us to continue working state by state until all 50 states, Washington DC, Puerto Rico, and the Navajo Nation implemented newborn screening for SCID in 2018.
In addition to the United States, the following countries are currently conducting newborn screening for SCID: Brazil, Denmark, Germany, Iceland, Israel, Lebanon, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Norway, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, and Taiwan. Belgium intends to add SCID to their newborn screening panel in late 2022 or early 2023.
Pilots are underway in Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Poland, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, United Kingdom, and Vietnam.
See if your country participates in a newborn screening program here: https://info4pi.org/town-hall/newborn-screening. The best way to Do Something is to use your voice – if your country doesn’t participate in newborn screening yet, speak up to encourage action!