Evaluation of Neonatal Screening Program Applied At Primary Health Care Centers in Baghdad /Iraq (Published)
Background: The neonatal screening program in Iraq is considered as a systematic public health program to screen infants in the first 3 to 5 days after delivery up to 2 month of age,for congenital hypothyroidism ,phenylketonuria and classical galactosemia. Objectives: To evaluate the program applied at Baghdad /Al-Karkh Health Directorate. Design: A cross- sectional study of one year duration of 10 districts which belongs to Baghdad /Al-Karkh Health Directorate using the special statistical form of the program. Results: The coverage rate was 66% of the number should be screened, the number of positively screened case was 59, the number of positively diagnosed case was 24 while the detection ability of the program was (0.028%). Conclusion: there was a low coverage rate in Baghdad /Al-Karkh Health Directorate compared to the international standard. The overall results of diagnosed cases was low but it comprise more than one third of positively screened cases.
Keywords: (CH) Congenital hypothyroidism, (GALT) Galactosemia, (PKU) Phenylketonuria, Coverage Rate, Detection Ability, Screening Test