The number of babies born in Portugal in the first nine months of this year decreased by 1.2% compared to the same period in 2019, totaling 64,390, according to data from the National Program for Early Diagnosis, known as the “little foot test”. In Braga, 5,032 were registered.
The number represents a drop of 775 births between January and September compared to the same period last year, in which 65,165 newborns were screened under the National Neonatal Screening Program (PNRN), coordinated by the National Health Institute Doctor Ricardo Jorge (INSA ).
Comparing with the same period of 2015, the year in which 62,990 babies were analyzed, the lowest number in the last five years for the same period, there was an increase of 2.2%, which represents another 1,400 births, the data show. Advanced INSA to the Lusa agency.
January was the month with the highest number of “foot tests” performed (8,043), followed by September (7,712), July (7,625), March (7,182), April (7,067), June (7,048), May (6,910) ), August (6,904) and February (5,899).
Neonatal screening data also indicate that Lisbon was the city that registered the highest number of births (18,867), followed by Porto (11,831) and Braga (5,032).
In the autonomous regions of the Azores and Madeira, 1,547 and 1,353 babies were born, respectively.
2019 was the year that registered the highest value of the last four years, with 87,364 newborns studied. In 2018, it had been 86,827 and in the previous year 86,180.
In 2016, 87,577 babies were screened, a number that fell in 2015 to 85,056, according to data from the Neonatal Screening Unit, Metabolism and Genetics, of the Department of Human Genetics at INSA.
The “heel prick test”, which covers almost all births in the country, is performed from the third day of life of the newborn, through the collection of blood droplets on the child’s foot, and allows the diagnosis of some serious diseases that clinically are very difficult to diagnose in the first weeks of life and that later can cause severe neurological changes, liver changes, among other situations.
These tests make it possible to identify children suffering from diseases, such as phenylketonuria or congenital hypothyroidism, who may benefit from early therapeutic intervention.
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