India launches programme for child-health screening.

Birth defects aff ect 6% of all children in India, which translates to a staggering 1·7 million birth defects annually. Developmental delays are also a substantial cause of morbidity in early childhood, aff ecting around 10% of children. That’s why many experts have welcomed a new government initiative to screen children for birth defects and intervene early, although concerns have been raised about implementation of the programme. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched the Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services initiative last month under the umbrella of the National Rural Health Mission to provide targeted, comprehensive care to children aged 0–18 years. Rohit Agrawal, president of the Indian Academy of Pediatrics in 2012, welcomed the news. “Early screening is prudent and will be of great benefi t in reducing morbidity and mortality of these children. Screening would give us an opportunity of early intervention in conditions like congenital cardiac diseases, and would also allow us the option of genetic counselling in certain conditions.” Louis-Georges Arsenault, representative of UNICEF India, shares a similar view: “There is an unacceptably high incidence of birth defects, defi ciencies, diseases in childhood, and developmental disorders, including disabilities, in India and it is high time we started to pay attention to their early detection and intervention.” “If properly implemented with scale, quality, and equity, the dividends of early intervention could be signifi cant. This would include improvement of survival and nutrition outcomes, reduction of malnutrition related deaths, enhancement of cognitive development and school performance, educational attainment, and overall improvement of quality of life of our citizens”, he adds. The programme has identifi ed 30 health conditions for screening and management including birth defects like club foot, cleft lip, congenital heart diseases, defi ciency conditions like anaemia, goitre, rickets, developmental delays and certain childhood diseases like rheumatic heart disease, otitis media, and dental caries.