Service Results for Preventive Health

Newborn screening (NBS) is a public health population based screening system designed to detect and treat infants with special needs who have certain hematologic, endocrine or metabolic disorders. The goal of newborn screening is to eliminate or reduce mortality, morbidity and disabilities that result from the disorders included in the screening panel through early detection and treatment. Early detection of these disorders can prevent the infant from having seizures, physical disabilities, mental retardation, chronic illness or death. By obtaining a few drops of blood from an infant's heel, tests are performed to help find the conditions so treatment can begin early and prevent these effects.