The medical research done at Sainte-Justine goes a long way in making our world a better place. Thanks to the support of people like you, the work of Dr. Élie Haddad, a clinician scientist in pediatric immunology, will help save the lives of more children with severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), also known as bubble baby disease.
The CHU Sainte-Justine Research Centre recently announced the release of a game-changing study with regard to screening for bubble baby disease.
Severe combined immunodeficiency (SCID), commonly referred to as bubble baby disease, affects 40 to 80 children every year in North America. Babies with SCID may seem perfectly healthy at birth, but their compromised immune system makes them very prone to infection. A simple cold can be life-threatening. Left untreated, the condition is often fatal within the first year. But suitable treatment depends on determining that a child’s immune system is indeed dysfunctional before an infection of any sort sets in.
This is the context underlying the research co-led by Dr. Élie Haddad, a clinician scientist in pediatric immunology at Sainte-Justine.
The study shows that systematic screening for SCID in North American newborns increases the chances of surviving the disease from 73% to 87%. This climbs to over 92% among patients whose condition is identified and treated at birth, before any symptoms develop. These are telling statistics indeed that will help save even more lives.
“Given that more deaths will be prevented and more complex treatments and the resulting consequences will be avoided, these results should encourage other jurisdictions to adopt newborn screening for SCID and other potentially fatal autoimmune disorders that can be detected by this test.”
Since 2018, every state in the U.S. has been screening for SCID. In Canada, seven provinces and territories are doing the same. Efforts are currently underway to bring this approach to Quebec.
For a discovery of this magnitude to come to light, it takes donors like you who are dedicated to growing research beyond existing applications and championing scientific advances that have a positive impact on the children of today and tomorrow. Your invaluable support changes lives — lives like young Tommy’s, who was diagnosed with SCID shortly after birth and could therefore be treated in time. Learn more about what your donations help accomplish through his story.
