Naples, toxic fires and risk of damage to the fetus: screening on pregnant women is underway
Land of fires: what is the removal of waste between illegal disposal of special and toxic and the incidence and prevalence of genetic diseases in newborns? For an answer to this question, a vast health surveillance project is at the starting line, which derives from the agreement signed last February between the Asl Napoli 3 Sud and the Ceinge di Napoli, the latter structure of regional reference for the Clinical molecular biology and laboratory genetics. Starting from July 1st, in the 37 municipalities of ASL 3 Sud included in the Terra dei Fuochi enclosure, pregnant women will be offered free fetal DNA screening with a non-invasive method (Nipt). An investigation that is carried out with a simple sampling by extracting the genetic material of the nose from the mother’s circulating blood. A check that will be added to the other routines carried out in the gynecological clinics and in the maternal-infantile operating units during the 9 months of gestation.
The surveillance will last two years and is conducted with scientific criteria: “It aims at evaluating the newborns registered in the register of the municipalities of our territory and belonging to a Terra fuochi – warns Gaetano D’Onofrio, company health director of ASL 3 Sud – the prevalence and higher incidence of chromosomal anomalies compared to the regional and national average. The standardized data will be stratified for two years and compared with the surveys of previous years, going back to the data of 2009, when the regional health plan on Terra dei Fuochi was launched ». The final indicator on the consequences of obtaining an accurate data genetic anomalies and will add to those already known, acquired from the relative registers, to the greater consequences of neoplastic diseases in the areas compromised from an environmental point of view. “Last year ASL 3 Sud obtained an award from the Ministry of Health, as the best” birth path “in Italy – recalls D’Onofrio – and we therefore decided to qualify with this surveillance opportunity the efficiency of the screening that we also carry out in the context of the diagnosis of rare diseases “. Non-invasive fetal DNA screening the guidelines of the recommendations of the Ministry of Health issued a year ago, when it was its inclusion in the Lea (Essential levels of assistance) in consideration not only of its appropriateness and safety but also in consideration of its appropriateness and safety. the cost-effectiveness of spending. The test is a non-invasive prenatal screening with performances that seem better than biological analyzes and nuchal translucency, which may or may not be associated with invasive diagnostic tests, and drastically reduces the use of invasive diagnostic investigations by reducing the number of abortions to these techniques associated with removal of fetal tissues (amniocentesis). At the time of the test, the validate has sensitivity and specificity for the trisomies of chromosomes 13, 18 and 21.
READ ALSO Fire and toxic cloud in Pagani, off to Arpac controls in the former Fatme
The agreement between Asl Napoli 3 and Ceinge it is then extended to the monitoring and prevention of childhood cancers as well as the identification of gene alterations of the genotype and phenotype of unborn and children in the 37 municipalities of the Terra dei Fuochi. The diagnostic tool allows to identify pregnancies at high risk of chromosomal abnormalities. The results collected will allow, in one step, to verify, through an accurate scientific study, the real incidence of gene alterations in the areas at greater risk than in the rest of Campania.