Missouri Personal Injury Lawyer Blog

A recent Missouri law adds to the already lengthy list of mandatory screenings for disease in newborns. KSMU News Radio reports in a story that a bill requiring checks for five “lysosomal” diseases was signed into law July 8.

The story also mentions a concrete example of a family ready to fight for the bill’s passage after losing an 11-month old son to what is called Krabbe disease, a lysosomal condition that can be prevented by an umbilical cord transfusion at birth. Child health advocates lead the charge in establishing checks for easily prevented illnesses that can prove fatal if undetected. As new parents are not medical experts, they depend on professional doctors to diagnose any specific conditions at birth so that they can be treated and prevented.

This recent bill offers a closer look at the general trend toward mandating checks for preventable disease in infants. Each state has its own requirements, with Missouri holding a leading position with mandatory screening for 67 diseases, according to an estimate from the KSMU story.

All of the differences in mandatory screening by state can lead to some complex cases where parents need to be able to find out exactly what the standards are for their situations according to the state of birth or the state of residence. When a family encounters a tragedy stemming from an undetected condition such as Krabbe or any other infant illness, the results can take a terrible emotional toll. Along with coping with bereavement, families are left to navigate an involved patchwork of state regulations on the behavior of medical networks facilitating births.