Dr. Hanif Hassan Ali, UAE Minister of Health, visited the national center for woman and child health in Abu Dhabi to view the new expansion plans of the center, the scope of work and the modern technologies used there.
The minister lauded the efforts of the center in serving mothers and children and the programs of the motherhood and childhood department. The national center for mother and child health in Abu Dhabi provides national health programs such as the national newborn screening program, genetic disease diagnosis labs, genetic diseases clinic, genetic counseling program and breast tumor early detection program.
He met with the doctors, technicians and nurses of the center lauding their efforts and the role of the center in serving motherhood and childhood fields and applying the latest technologies in early screening procedures.
Dr. Hajar Al Hosani, Director of Motherhood and Childhood Central Administration at the Ministry of Health and Director of the Center, gave a detailed explanation about the center and its role in providing all the requirements and needs of the program. She said: “The UAE Minister of Health instructed us to raise the health services and programs that are provided for the community members in general and the role of the central administration in specific. Such activities had a great impact on the development of our services and human resources”.
Al Hosani stated the importance of applying quality assurance standards in the maternity programs pointing out that these programs are supervised by some international health organizations and centers such as the United Kingdom National External Quality Assessment Service (NEQAS) in England, CDC program in Atlanta, USA, International Atomic Energy Agency, Nottingham Breast Cancer Center and WHO. Our programs have been accredited by these organizations.
Al Hosani indicated that the UAE has been classified by the World Health Organization “WHO” within the MENA group one countries that has national newborn screening programs.
The minister then listened to a brief explanation about the history of the center and the obstacles they face, the role of the national programs for motherhood and childhood, and the modern equipments used in early screening programs as well as the successful models and positive impacts on the health of mothers and children in the UAE. The center received several international experts who expressed their admiration with the efficiency of the program in comparison with international programs.
Inside the center, he also viewed the national program of genetic diseases through the TMS equipment and its role in the expansion of early new born screening programs.
It is noted that the Maternity and Childhood Central Administration began expanding this program by increasing the numbers of tests to 16 diseases that were previously 5 tests only. Since the beginning of 2011, the TMS will screen these diseases to increase to 30 tests in 2012.
TMS is a new addition to the new advanced technology in the newborn screening programs as it discovers most amino acids, fatty acids and organic acids diseases that might cause disabilities or mortalities of newborns if not detected at early stages or treated appropriately.
GCC initial statistics reveal that metabolic diseases occur at a rate of one baby per 1000 and can be discovered by the TMS system. It may cause various disabilities and death at a rate of 3%.
The seriousness of the disease is that the baby is born naturally then symptoms appear during the first days especially after breastfeeding and most of the time after having processed milk. Symptoms vary between poor breast feeding, constant vomiting, laziness, excessive sleep and lax muscles.
Al Hosani revealed that the TMS equipment will assist us to accomplish test results accurately and reduce the numbers of incorrect diagnosed cases or the additional tests to reduce effort ant time. The system can also discover more than one disease at one time by using one sample only rather than a series of tests.
Inside the breast cancer early screening program, Dr. Mona Al Subailji, Program Coordinator at the Center, explained the role of the program, goals and expansion plans in the northern emirates. A number of mammogram units have been lately established in the ministry’s medical districts.
The program made more than 90,000 mammogram tests and trained about 39 x-ray technicians and 17 x-ray specialists as well as 1200 primary health care doctors and 1500 nurses on the application methods of the program. The detection rate reached 6.3 per 1000 women who underwent treatment, periodic follow-up and screenings.
WAM