Hawaii health department starts newborn screening for life-threatening immunodeficiencies

The Hawaii Department of Health Newborn Metabolic Screening Program is now screening newborns for Severe Combined Immunodeficiency.

With this addition of SCID, Hawaii is universally screening for all disorders on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Service Recommended Uniform Screening Panel, the department said. SCID newborn screening is done by blood spot collected within 24 to 48 hours of birth alongside the other 32 disorders already screened for in Hawaii.

“While this condition is rare, it can have serious life-threatening consequences for newborn infants,” said Sylvia Mann, DOH Genomics Se ction Supervisor. “Fortunately, early screening can identify this and other inherited conditions, giving newborns a chance for life-saving treatment.”

SCID is the name for a group of inherited disorders that cause babies to be born without a working immune system. Newborns with SCID may seem healthy at first because their mother’s immune system protects them from infections for the first few weeks of life. However, without necessary treatment, common infections and vaccines can be life threatening to these infants.

Early detection and treatment is essential for these babies to survive. Treatment is a bone marrow transplant or gene therapy. In order to ensure babies born in Hawaii have access to the life-saving treatment options, a federally funded partnership between Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children, the University of California at Los Angeles Mattel’s Children’s Hospital and the Hawaii Department of Health has been created.