Newborn screening thrives in Karnataka's private hospitals, state institutions slow to catch on

While most private hospitals in the city now screen newborns for metabolic disorders, the practice is limited only to a few autonomous institutions in the government sector.

Between 2017 and 2020, a project to screen newborns at both government and private hospitals in Udupi district revealed that approximately one in every 220 babies showed one of the six disorders under examination. The project also revealed that the cost of screening the newborn would be significantly lower than the cost of treating a child with such disorders later in life.

Conditions such as hypothyroidism, for instance, can lead to intellectual disabilities. Similarly, phenylketonuria is known to cause irreversible brain damage, if not promptly managed.

Currently, private hospitals in Bengaluru offer a panel of screening tests to newborns, said Dr Sumitha P Nayak, executive board member at the Indian Academy of Paediatrics.

“There are about 50 metabolic disorders which can be tested using just a drop of the child’s blood. Some additional tests for diseases like sickle cell anaemia are also done. This is part of standard protocols now, but the number of tests varies across hospitals,” Dr Sumitha added.

She said metabolic disorders can be treated or their complications prevented by changing the diet or taking medicine.

But a state health department official said that screening in the government sector is done only for obvious physical deformities along with vision and hearing tests.

“We need to address the major causes of infant disease and deaths. Once the infant mortality rate falls to the single digit (from 19), we can look at rarer disorders,” he said.

“We are considering having a pilot for these diseases, as Kerala and Tamil Nadu have. But once we start a regular state programme, it must operate consistently. Also, logistical issues like sample transport and modalities like PPP must be worked out,” he added.

A handful of autonomous institutions like IGICH and Vani Vilas Hospital run these programmes on their own volition.

IGICH director Dr Sanjay KS said that around 200 out of 4,000 odd children were found to have disorders since it began screening in 2016.

At the hospital, a rudimentary screening for five disorders costs only Rs 400 for the APL category, while the same has been provided free for BPL patients.