Fortnightly Review: Neonatal screening for sickle cell disorders: what about the carrier infants?

Summary points Neonatal screening for sickle cell disorders detects between 17 and 100 carrier infants for each child detected as having sickle cell disorder Information on neonatal carrier status is an unavoidable outcome of the neonatal screening process Withholding information from parents is not justified Further research is needed to evaluate the benefits and risks of this information and the effectiveness of different policies for follow up This is relevant to future developments in molecular genetics, which may place health