Present status of newborn screening in Bangladesh through the participation of health professionals

Abstract

The idea of newborn screening is to discover potentially fatal or disabling problems in infants as early as possible, usually, before the baby shows any signs or symptoms of an illness or condition. As part of the government's newborn screening program, almost all infants in developed nations are checked at birth for uncommon, severe, and treatable disorders (NBS). As newborn screening remains a major difficulty in Bangladesh, there have lately been proposals for a wider voluntary strategy to aid in the early detection and treatment of a broader range of disorders. A self-administered online survey was carried out in collaboration with Bangladeshi health professionals. Using a mixed qualitative-quantitative statistical approach, the knowledge, engagement, intents, and preferences of healthcare professionals about testing methodologies, testing characteristics, hospital infrastructure, cost estimation, and parental attitudes toward newborn screening were investigated. The final analysis included 281 individuals, of which 59 percent were men and 41 percent were women. Males had a higher level of knowledge of newborn screening than females in relation to gender (79.1 percent for male participants and 77.7 percent for the female participants). Knowledge and the current occupation had a significant connection (p 0.05). Congenital Hypothyroidism disease was screened by NBS the most (18.7% of cases), numerous other diseases were also screened by NBS. The significance of this work to public health is the attribution of participants who want to reduce child mortality and improve child health in their community, as well as the potential to construct public discussion groups that recognize screening diseases, investigate hospital facilities for it, and provide information to families and health professionals about the importance of newborn screening. [ J Adv Biotechnol Exp Ther 2023; 6(3.000): 564-574]

Keywords

• newborn screening
• present scenario
• health professional
• bangladesh