Skip to content

All the news that matters, in plain English.

Latest
  1. Newsom signs bill banning child marriage in California
  2. Oasis injunction halts sale of unheard 'Desk Tapes' archive
  3. Suspected Iranian drone hits KDPI camp in Koya in second attack in a week
  4. Phil Mickelson checked out of addiction treatment centre, rep confirms
  5. Newsom signs 'No Robo Bosses' law and AI worker-protection package in California
  6. Ted Lasso honours Anthony Head with tribute card in penultimate season 4 episode
  7. US State Department revokes more than 250,000 visas in mass vetting crackdown
  8. Helicopter crash in Zimbabwe kills six, with businessman Wicknell Chivayo and wife among the reported dead

Health

Newborn SMA screening begins in England today

NHS England begins screening newborns for spinal muscular atrophy today, with Birmingham clinics first and seven laboratories covering 72% of newborns.

By Sarah Whitfield · · 2 min read

A clinician's gloved hands pressing a newborn baby's heel to collect a drop of blood onto a blood-spot screening card
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)

NHS England has begun screening newborns in England for spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) today.

Birmingham clinics are first to offer the heel-prick blood spot test for SMA, followed by Manchester. Seven laboratories already equipped for the test cover an estimated 72% of newborns, after campaigning brought the start forward three months. Six more screening laboratories begin from October 2027, giving every newborn in England access to the test.

The screening is an in-service evaluation, meaning experts will study how it works in the real world while the NHS uses it. The University of Oxford will analyse the results for the UK National Screening Committee, which will decide whether SMA stays in the blood spot test.

SMA affects between 60 and 70 babies a year in England; severe cases cause permanent muscle weakness, breathing difficulties and early death. Catching it before symptoms appear gives babies the best chance of benefiting from NHS treatments, including Novartis’s £1.8m-a-dose treatment.

Andy Fletcher, chief executive of Muscular Dystrophy UK, said: “Thanks to the tireless campaigning of the SMA community over many years, babies will now be tested shortly after birth, which will quite literally change lives.”

The rollout was brought forward after campaigning by former Little Mix singer Jesy Nelson, whose one-year-old twins, Ocean and Story, were diagnosed with SMA too late for treatment. A 150,000-signature petition triggered a Westminster Hall debate on the issue. Screening already runs in Scotland, where one child has been treated after the gene mutation was detected.

Sources

More on this topic: all Health stories

Get Flip News by email

This opens your email app — we add you manually. No account, no spam, no third parties.