Save Babies Through Screening
Foundation, Inc., Launches Packets for Parents Program for Needy
Families.
Packets for Parents is a program that provides free newborn screening packets to expectant parents in the United States who are unable to pay for them. Certain restrictions apply, and quantities are limited to a specific number of packets each month. For information please click on PACKETS for PARENTS.
March of Dimes Calls for Screening for Biotinidase Deficiency in All Fifty States
In August of 2000, the March of Dimes released a statement disputing a report from a task force sponsored by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. The report entitled "Newborn Screening: A Blueprint for the Future," by the National Newborn Screening Task Force was published in Pediatrics, volume 106, issue 2.
The March of Dimes states that every baby born in the U.S. should receive the same core group of screening tests, regardless of which state he or she is born in. One of these eight core disorders is biotinidase deficiency.
The March of Dimes is currently advocating in states that do not currently screen for biotinidase deficiency, to have it added to the newborn screening panel.
What States Currently Screen for Biotinidase Deficiency in its Newborn Screening (NBS) Panel?
The states that DO NOT screen for biotinidase deficiency as of July 2005 are:
| Alabama Arkansas California D.C. Delaware Florida (by request) Kansas Kentucky (soon) Missouri (soon) |
Montana (by request) New Hampshire Oklahoma Pennsylvania (optional in most hospitals) Texas Utah West Virginia |
For more state-by-state information on screening for biotinidase deficiency and other disorders please visit the Genes R Us Tables.