National Guard Health Affairs represented by Department of Pediatrics and The Division of Genetics and Metabolic Diseases in collaboration with Department of Pathology & Laboratory in King Abdulaziz Medical City – Riyadh organized the Newborn Screening Program (NBS) Celebration Day on the 13th of February 2014.
The ceremony began with a recitation from the Holy Qur'an then a speech by Dr. Abdullah Al Zaben, Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics, emphasizing on the importance of Newborn early screening that started in 2011 in NGHA aiming to examine all Newborns during the first day of delivery and thus providing the appropriate early treatment.
Pointing out that directives for launching the Newborn Screening Program were issued by H.E. Dr. Bandar Al Knawy, CEO of NGHA to apply the program in all NGHA hospitals in the Kingdom.
Then Dr. Sandra Van Kalkar from Wisconsin University, United States expressed her pleasure in participate in this event as well as her admiration for the positive outcomes reached by the NBS program in NGHA. She later on presented a detailed report about NBS in the United States.
Then the sponsor of the event, Dr. Bandar Al Knawy, announced the launching of the events in which he pointed out that the NGHA is one of the first medical government sectors in applying this important project, which includes Screening of 18 metabolic genetic disease in order to reduce the complications of those diseases before serious symptoms can occur, emphasizing that early diagnosis and treatment can significantly help in reducing its severity on the patient's health.
After that, Dr. Bandar Al Knawy, honored the NBS distinguished members; both the doctors and staff. Furthermore, Dr. Abdullah Al Zaben, Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics presented a plaque to Dr. Bandar Al Knawy for his support.
Finally, the activity covered a wide range of topics such as NBS Program history worldwide, early intervention and diagnosis as well as newborn screening program in comparison to symptomatic diagnosis presented by a number of consultants from Department of Pediatrics.