“Standing by this instrument in my laboratory, I am transported back three decades, when I launched a pilot study that became the Philippines’ newborn health-screening programme.
When our pilot began in 1996, we manually tested the babies’ blood-spot samples, one by one, for five common health conditions. Now, with the help of this automated genetic-screening processor, we test thousands of samples each day for several conditions, including rare diseases — all with just a drop or two of blood.
Health-screening programmes such as this quickly detect conditions that can cause learning disabilities, delayed development and even death without early intervention. However, such screening isn’t available for 70% of babies worldwide.
