TORONTO – Ontario hospitals will begin screening newborns for “bubble-boy disease,” an often fatal immune deficiency which can cured if identified early in a child’s life.
The province will become the first in Canada to screen infants for Severe Combined Immune Deficiency Syndrome, which is known by the acronyn SCID.
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The ministry of health estimates 10 children a year will be saved in Ontario because of the new screening program.
Children with SCID have highly compromised immune systems and cannot fight off infections.
They often experience a series of severe bacterial, viral and fungal infections and frequently that can lead to death.
The condition becomes the 29th inherited and-or treated disease for which babies born in Ontario are screened.
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