Newborn Screening

Newborn screening (NBS) is extremely important for identification of many diferent rare diseases, meaning children with these rare diseases could be diagnosed and offered treatment before babies become sick. SRDC funded a pilot program of NBS for a group of rare diseases termed severe combined immunodeficiencies (SCID).

The results from this pilot study were pivotal in influencing the Hong Kong Government to include SCID in universal NBS, which has been adopted in the public hospital system for 2 years. The Government has been persuaded to include all the private hospitals as well in 2025. This universal approach to include all babies in Hong Kong will be adopted not only for SCID, but also for other rare diseases, and enabled Hong Kong to be ahead of many countries and regions in the world.