R.A. 9288

• R.A. 9288


  Newborn Screening Act of 2004
• Date of approval: April 7, 2004
• Term:


  Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
• Articles: 5, Section: 19
• It is the policy of the state to protect and promote the right to health of the people, including the rights of children to survival and full and healthy development as normal individuals.
• The National Newborn Screening System shall ensure that every baby born in the Philippines is offered the opportunity to undergo newborn screening and thus be spared from heritable conditions that can lead to mental retardation and death if undetected and untreated.
• Newborn screening that in Newborn screening system that includes, but is not limited to, education of relevant stakeholders; collection and biochemical screening of blood samples taken from newborns; tracking and confirmatory testing to ensure the accuracy of screening results; clinical evaluation and biochemical/medical confirmation of test results; drugs and medical/surgical management and dietary supplementation to address the heritable conditions; and evaluation activities to assess long term outcome, patient compliance and quality assurance


  Comprehensive Newborn Screening System
• Monitoring of a newborn with heritable condition for the purpose of ensuring that the newborn patient complies fully with the medicine of dietary prescription

  Follow-up
• Hospitals, health infirmaries, health centers, lying-in centers or puericulture centers with obstetrical and pediatric services, whether public or private.

  Health institutions
• Physicians, nurses, midwives, nursing aides and traditional birth attendants

  Healthcare practitioner
• Any condition that can result in mental retardation, physical deformity or death if left undetected and untreated and which is usually inherited from the genes of either or both biological parents


  Heritable condition
• NIH


  National Institute of Health
• Child from the time of complete delivery to 30 days old


  Newborn
• The process of collecting a few drops of blood from the newborn onto an appropriate collection card and performing biochemical testing for determining if the newborn has a heritable condition

  Newborn Screening
• A facility equipped with newborn screening laboratory that complies with the standard established by the NIH

  Newborn Screening Center
• The central facility at the NIH that defines testing and follow-up protocols, maintains an external laboratory proficiency testing program, oversees the national testing database and case registries, assists in training activities in all aspects of the program, oversees content of educational materials and acts as the Secretariat of the Advisory Committee on Newborn Screening

  Newborn Screening Reference Center
• Newborn Screening Reference Center

  UP-National Institute of Health
• Various means of providing parents or legal guardians information about newborn screening

  Parent education
• A procedure for locating a newborn with possible heritable condition for purpose of providing the newborn with appropriate laboratory to confirm the diagnosis and, as appropriate, provide treatment

  Recall
• The provision of prompt, appropriate and adequate medicine, medical, and surgical management or dietary prescription to a newborn for purposes of treating or mitigating the adverse health consequences of the heritable condition.

  Treatment
• Obligation to inform


  Any health practitioner who delivers, or assists in the delivery, of a newborn in the Philippines shall, prior to delivery, inform the parents or legal guardian of the newborn of the availability, nature and benefits of newborn screening. Appropriate notification and education regarding this obligation shall be the responsibility of the Department of Health (DOH).
• Newborn screening shall be performed after twenty-four (24) hours of life but not later than three (3) days from complete delivery of the newborn.
• A newborn that must be placed in intensive care in order to ensure survival may be exempted from the 3-day requirement but must be tested by seven (7) days of age.
• A parent or legal guardian may refuse testing on the grounds of religious beliefs, but shall acknowledge in writing their understanding that refusal for testing places their newborn at risk for undiagnosed heritable conditions.
• The DOH and the Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PHIC) shall require health institutions to provide newborn screening services as a condition for licensure or accreditation.
• Lead agency


  DOH
• Objectives of Lead agency:

  1. Establish the Advisory Committee on Newborn Screening
  2. Develop the implementing rules and regulations for the immediate implementation of a nationwide newborn screening program within one hundred eight (180) days from the enactment of this Act
  3. Coordinate with the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) for implementation of the newborn screening program
  4. Coordinate with the NIH Newborn Screening Reference Center for the accreditation of Newborn Screening Centers and preparation of defined testing protocols and quality assurance programs.
• Advisory committee on newborn screening


  Review annually and recommend conditions to be included in newborn screening panel of disorders
• The committee shall be composed of eight (8) members; including the Secretary of Health as Chairman.
• The other members of the Committee shall be as follows:

  1. the Executive Director of the NIH, who shall act as Vice Chairperson
  2. an Undersecretary of the DILG
  3. the Executive Director of the Council for the Welfare of Children
  4. the Director of the Newborn Screening Reference Center; and
  5. three (3) representatives appointed by the Secretary of Health who shall be a pediatrician, obstetrician, endocrinologist, family physician, nurse or midwife, from either the public or private sector.
• The three (3) representatives shall be appointed for a term of three (3) years, subject to their being reappointed for additional three (3) years period for each extension.
• The Committee shall meet at least twice a year.
• At a minimum, every Newborn Screening Center shall:

  1. have a certified laboratory performing all tests included in the newborn screening program
  2. have a recall/follow up programs for infants found positive for any and all of the heritable conditions
  3. be supervised and staffed by trained personnel who have been duly qualified by the NIH
  4. submit to periodic announced or unannounced inspections by the Reference Center in order to evaluate and ensure quality Newborn Screening Center performance.
• • 4% to the DOH's Centers for Health Development
  • 4% to the Newborn Screening Centers
  • 4% to the NIH Newborn Screening Reference Center
• Most common newborn disorder in the Philippines

  G-6-PD Deficiency
• Inclusion of Maple Syrup Urine Disease (MSUD)

  DOH Memorandum No. 2012-0154
• Common Newborn Disease

  • Congenital Hypothyroidism
  • Congenital Adrenal Hyperplasia
  • Phenylketonuria
  • G-6-PD deficiency
  • Galactosemia
  • MSUD
• OPTION 1: SCREENING FOR 6 DISORDERS: P550/Free (Philhealth)

  OPTION 2: EXPANDED NBS: P1,500/550 (Philhealth)