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More than 400 thousand newborn examinations were conducted in Ukraine

More than 400,000 newborn examinations have been conducted in Ukraine as part of the expanded neonatal screening program.
This was announced by Health Minister Viktor Liashko, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.

What is neonatal screening?

Neonatal screening is a free medical examination of newborns for certain congenital or rare diseases that may not have symptoms at an early stage but can lead to serious consequences if treatment is not started on time.

It is performed on the 1-3 day after birth.

A drop of blood is taken from the newborn’s heel and sent to the laboratory. The test is voluntary, but the Ministry of Health strongly recommends it, Lyashko said.

When did the program start?

According to Lyashko, the program was launched in October 2022 with the support of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Before that, infants in Ukraine were tested for only 4 hereditary diseases. Now they are tested for 21.

In particular, more than 146,000 tests were conducted at the Lviv Regional Neonatal Screening Center, more than 132,000 at the Kyiv Regional Center, more than 73,000 at the Kryvyi Rih Regional Center, and more than 57,000 at the Kharkiv Regional Center

“So far, this has already allowed us to detect 646 cases of rare diseases in time, including 56 cases of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA),” the Minister emphasized.