Social Democrats health spokesperson P\u00e1draig Rice has welcomed that Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) have finally been added to the National Newborn Bloodspot Screening, commonly known as the heel prick test.<\/p>\n
Deputy Rice, who chairs the Oireachtas Health Committee, said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an incredibly important milestone for families impacted by SCID and SMA across the country.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2023, the Government accepted the National Screening Advisory Committee\u2019s (NSAC) recommendation that the newborn screening programme should be expanded to include both conditions.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should not have taken three years to get this over the line, and I have raised this on multiple occasions in the last year.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring this delay, babies born with SCID and SMA missed out on early detection, leading to unnecessary delays in diagnosis and treatment.<\/p>\n
\u201cEarly detection through screening is essential for access to effective treatment for these rare conditions. Ultimately, this leads to better outcomes.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow Ireland screens for 11 conditions, but we still lag behind many of our European counterparts. Italy screens for 48 conditions, followed by Austria at 31 and Portugal at 30.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcceptance of further NSAC recommendations \u2013 one of which is expected by the end of the year on Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia (CAH) \u2013 must avoid further prolonged, multi-year implementation periods.<\/p>\n
\u201cExpanding the newborn screening programme must be viewed as a priority in line with the National Rare Disease Strategy.\u201d<\/p>\n
April 13th, 2025<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Social Democrats health spokesperson P\u00e1draig Rice has welcomed that Severe Combined Immunodeficiency (SCID) and Spinal Muscular Atrophy (SMA) have finally been added to the National Newborn Bloodspot Screening, commonly known as the heel prick test. Deputy Rice, who chairs the Oireachtas Health Committee, said: \u201cThis is an incredibly important milestone for families impacted by SCID […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16408,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[540,11,726,642,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-children","category-health","category-hse","category-padraig-rice","category-press-release"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n