Current sickle cell screening program for newborns in New York City, 1979-1980

The newborn screening program mandated by the New York State Public Health Law requires that every baby born in the state be tested for eight conditions including sickle cell anemia. Although sickle cell screening of newborns has been in operation since 1975, the follow-up program for case retrieval to obtain repeat blood samples for definitive diagnosis and referral of diagnosed patients for ongoing medical care was established only in 1979. Of the 106,565 blood samples tested in New York City Newborn Screening Laboratory, March 1, 1979 to February 29, 1980, 141 infants were identified on repeat blood testing as having various forms of sickle cell disease (SS, SC and S beta-Thalassemia) and were referred for ongoing medical care. Data received on 131 patients from follow-up clinics revealed that the disease diagnosis made by the Newborn Screening Laboratory was confirmed in all patients. There were no deaths reported among the study patients (131 infants) followed for the period of 8-20 months despite the life-threatening complications among eight patients. Binomial distribution of the data on Black infants according to the Hardy-Weinberg equation showed reasonable agreement between the observed and computed incidence of various forms of sickle cell disease.