By Noimot Olayiwola
THE Rumailah Hospital’s laboratory, equipped to detect genetic diseases in newborns, has commenced operations by carrying out five tests, it was announced yesterday.
The metabolic and endocrine screening facility has become operational from May 25, conducting tests in parallel with Germany’s Heidelberg University Hospital as a test run of the lab here.
Dr Hilal al-Rifai, chief of staff at women’s hospital and director, newborn screening programme, recalled that since its launch in December 2003 with screening for 32 disorders, a total of 53,000 newborns have been screened so far.
“In all, 87 babies were detected with inherited metabolic disorders and treated successfully,” he said.
The five tests being conducted now are those to detect deficiency in thyroid and adrenaline glands functioning, phosphate deficiency and biotidinase and galactose tests.
“Hitherto, samples for all the newborn tests were being sent only to the laboratory at Heidelberg University, which has also been involved with the training and re-training of our staff and assisting in the setting-up of our laboratory,” Dr al-Rifai said.
The official expressed optimism that the practice of parallel tests in Qatar and Germany could be discontinued after Ramadan, and tests for the remaining 27 disorders would soon commence in Qatar.
“The alliance with Heidelberg has positioned our programme as one of the seven most successful ones in the world,” he stated.
Newborn screening unit head and consultant neonatologist Dr Ghassan Mustafa Abdoh and Clinical Pathology Division and Metabolic Laboratory head Dr Mohamed Abdul-Rahman said that the results from Rumailah’s laboratory have been okay so far.
They expressed confidence that the laboratory will carry out tests efficiently when it becomes fully independent of Heidelberg in a couple of months.
“The advantages of conducting the tests locally are that apart from cutting costs, there is less risks and less turn-around time, that is, the time between conducting the tests and getting the results. The tests can be conducted and results obtained same day,” Dr Abdoh explained.
He said that 308 nurses have received training about the programme, while additional 50 are been prepared for training this week.
Dr Abdul-Rahman said, while re-emphasising the competence of the hospital, that there are adequate facilities including the required technology and expertise in place to carry through the process.
“We are very confident of our ability because there is full co-operation between us and our clinical colleagues in handling the tests here,” he said.
“Moreover, carrying out the tests here will provide us with the opportunity to repeat any test with abnormal results quickly and statistics from the laboratory would be of immense use to scientists and reseachers,” Dr Abdul-Rahman added. |
