Vol. 8, Issue 6 (2019)

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 1 month of age. A heel prick blood sample was taken from neonates and sent to general public health laboratory to screening Congenital hypothyroidism, Phenylketonuria and Galactosemia in 2018.

Aim of the study: To over view of the newborn screening program and estimate screening efficiency based on: the coverage rate, detection(diagnostic) ability, newborn bloodspot screening - timeliness of sample collection, newborn bloodspot screening - timeliness of sample receipt and number needed to screen to diagnose one case in the whole program in Baghdad Al-Karkh Health Directorate in 2018.

Patients and Methods: Retro- descriptive study conducted at Baghdad/Al-karkh Health Directorate which includes 10 districts are (Al-Karkh district. Al-Adel district. Al-Doura district. Al-Ilam district. Abo Gareb district. Al-A’amil district. Al-Mahmoodia district. Al-Tajee district. Al-Kadhemiya district, Al-Tarmia district). And two hospitals are Central child teaching hospital and AL-Yarmook teaching hospital. The number should be screened in Baghdad/ Al-Karkh from 1st of January-31st of December 2018 was (91266), or called the Annual target of newborn. (54168) of them screened at age of 3-30 days after delivery in 2018. By using the special statistical form which designed by researchers to retrieve and analyze the data through Excel software sheets 2007. The categorical variable which are summarized as numbers and percentages presented in forms of tables (descriptive statistical approaches).

Results: The coverage rate was (60%) of the number should be screened where the highest percentage of the coverage rate which achieved in Al-Adel districs was (90%) and lowest in Al-Kadhemiya districs was (39%), the number of positive screened test for all diseases included in the program were (59) cases, then the confirmed diagnosed cases were (45), while the detection ability of the program was (0.083%) and the last result was the number needed to screen and diagnose one case in the whole program was (1204) cases.