The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) has announced the beginning of a new pilot program aimed at screening newborns for a debilitating genetic disorder. The department is partnering with the North Dakota Newborn Screening Program to test infants for Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA). The condition is an inherited neurological disease the results in progressive muscle weakness. Left untreated, infant SMA typically leads to death in the first two years of life and later-onset forms result in physical disabilities. The program, which began July 1, has the State Hygenic Laboratory at the University of Iowa screen for the condition on all specimens submitted. If an abnormality is detected, the infant’s primary care provider will be contacted and given further recommendations. Iowa’s current program now screens for more than 40 inherited disorders through blood spot, hearing and congenital heart disease testing. According to the Spinal Muscular Atrophy Foundation, between one in 6,000 and one in 10,000 children in the United States are born with the disease.
