AHS announces routine sickle cell disease screening for newborns
By Medicine Hat News on June 22, 2019.
Alberta Health Services will now provide routine testing on newborn babies for sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disease causes red blood cells to have a crescent moon or sickle shape and become trapped in blood vessels, causing pain, damage to tissue and premature breakdown of the red blood cells, AHS stated in a press release. Sickle cell disease can affect anyone but is more prevalent in people of African, Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Asian descent. In some groups, it can affect one in every 400 people. Screening newborns for this disease has been shown to reduce deaths in early childhood and it reduces the occurrence of potentially life-threatening bacterial infections by more than 80 per cent, says AHS. When a diagnosis is made in a young baby the parents can be better prepared and able to reduce the severity of complications. Screening through AHS is offered free of charge. AHS says the best time to do the test in while the baby is still in hospital after birth, but can also be done at a home or clinic visit. 7-6
