Neonatal screening in New Zealand

EDITOR,—Alison Streetly and colleagues describe the neonatal screening programmes in the United Kingdom.1 Screening for phenylketonuria and congenital hypothyroidism is almost universal, but other conditions have been added to meet regional needs (or regional skills and interests). The authors comment that not all programmes have been assessed against the criteria that determine whether a screening programme is suitable.2 In New Zealand seven conditions are screened for (table 1), with roughly 95% coverage of about 60000 births annually. Some of the …