Indicators of newborn screening for congenital hypothyroidism in Sri Lanka: program challenges and way forward.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Many of the countries in the Asia Pacific Region are just initiating newborn screening programs for selected metabolic and other congenital disorders. The present study is aimed at evaluating the congenital hypothyroidism screening program in the Southern region of Sri Lanka in terms of coverage, effectiveness of detecting and managing the cases.

Methods

The Newborn Screening System Database of Sri Lanka was reviewed from January 2011 to December 2012. The data of 47 babies who tested positive for hypothyroidism were analyzed.

Results

Total of 78,167 babies (99.0% of live births) were screened. Of them, 5.8% (n = 4,472) were discharged within 12 hrs of delivery where as 58.1% (n = 44969) were discharged afterwards but within next 12 hrs (i.e., day 1). The p

SUBMITTER: Hettiarachchi M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4167276 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature