Early in the morning, at Shijiazhuang Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital in Hebei, many pregnant women were accompanied by their families for prenatal examination. Queuing, blood drawing... In just 10 minutes, Liu Cong, the "expectant mother" who was 15 weeks pregnant, completed two important examinations - non-invasive prenatal gene screening and deafness gene screening for pregnant women.

"Previously, the non-invasive prenatal genetic screening cost more than 2000 yuan, and the maternal deafness genetic screening cost more than 1000 yuan. Now it is free, which is a real benefit." Liu Cong said that the inspection process is very convenient, without an appointment, you can directly come to the hospital to screen, and the results can be queried on the "Hebei Free Prenatal Screening" public account. Only a few days after the inspection, Liu Cong's query results on the public account showed normal.

In order to effectively move forward the barrier of disability prevention and fully promote the construction of a healthy Hebei Province, Hebei Province took the lead in carrying out two people benefiting projects of non-invasive prenatal gene and deafness gene free screening for pregnant women (including registered population and floating population) in the whole province in 2019. Through timely screening, diagnosis and intervention during pregnancy, the birth of mentally retarded and deaf mute children was effectively prevented.

From 2022 to 2024, the project has been listed in 20 livelihood projects of the provincial government for three consecutive years, covering 11 cities divided into districts and 167 counties (cities and districts) in Dingzhou, Xinji and Xiong'an New Area.

"In the form of government purchase of services, the provincial health care commission uniformly centralized procurement, and the financial department undertook the funding for laboratory genetic testing, prenatal screening and prenatal diagnosis institutions. The provincial implementation effectively reduced the screening price, achieved the established health goals with as little government financial investment as possible, and achieved the effectiveness, accuracy and universality of livelihood security." Li Baohong, director of Maternal and Child Health Department of Hebei Health Commission, said.

"Thanks to this test, I terminated my pregnancy in time, otherwise what would I do if I gave birth to a deformed baby?" Zhang Ziqi, a citizen of Handan, Hebei Province, was grateful as a beneficiary of the program of non-invasive prenatal gene screening and free deafness gene screening for pregnant women.

At the beginning of January last year, Zhang Ziqi carried out a non-invasive prenatal genetic screening for pregnant women in Hanshan District Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, Handan City, and the results surprised her - trisomy 21 syndrome is at high risk, which is often called "Down's syndrome".

"The medical staff told me in detail, and informed me to transfer to Handan Maternal and Child Health Hospital for prenatal diagnosis." Zhang Ziqi said that through amniocentesis and other diagnoses, the fetus was diagnosed with Down's syndrome, and at the same time with a variety of malformations. After consulting with her family, she decided to terminate her pregnancy.

In May last year, Zhang Ziqi became pregnant again after her recovery from recuperation. She received non-invasive prenatal gene screening for the second time in Hanshan District Maternal and Child Health Care Hospital, and all indicators were normal. In February this year, Zhang Ziqi gave birth naturally and gave birth to a healthy baby boy.

Chen Huiying, director of the prenatal diagnosis center of Handan Maternal and Child Health Hospital, said that all pregnant women should be screened for non-invasive prenatal gene testing, regardless of parity and age, and the best pregnancy week for screening is 12 to 22 weeks. Pregnant women previously went to prenatal screening institutions to collect blood samples, and then transferred them to testing institutions to extract fetal free DNA from maternal blood to test the risk rate of fetal chromosomal aneuploidy disease. If the test result is high risk, the pregnant woman needs to go to the prenatal diagnosis institution to accept the prenatal diagnosis of amniocentesis. If the result is abnormal, the doctor will explain the situation to the pregnant woman and put forward corresponding medical advice.

As for the deafness gene, Chen Huiying introduced that its carrying rate in the population is about 5%, and it can be tested once by pregnant women, regardless of birth order. Because hereditary deafness is autosomal recessive inheritance, if both husband and wife are carriers, there is a 1/4 probability of breeding deaf children. "If the fetus is diagnosed with deafness, the doctor will explain the situation to the pregnant woman, and put forward relevant medical advice, so as to achieve early diagnosis and early intervention. If only the pregnant woman is a deaf gene carrier, it is recommended that she should carry out a joint screening of newborn hearing and genes after delivery to strengthen health care awareness." Chen Huiying said.

At present, Hebei has identified 296 designated prenatal screening institutions for project projects, 12 designated prenatal diagnostic institutions for project projects, and more than 4000 qualified personnel for record. The province has established a one-stop service chain of publicity and education, prenatal screening, prenatal diagnosis, genetic counseling, diagnosis and treatment intervention, and rehabilitation assistance, and the birth defect prevention and control service system has been further improved.

The reporter learned from the Health Commission of Hebei Province that from the launch of the project to April 1, 2024, the province's non-invasive prenatal gene free screening project for pregnant women has screened 1.888 million pregnant women in total, and the maternal deafness gene free screening project has screened 1.655 million pregnant women in total, so that the target population should be screened and the whole province covered; Combining genetic counseling and prenatal diagnosis, we successfully intervened in the birth of more than 4000 defective children, and achieved remarkable results in moving forward the barrier of disability prevention.

(At the request of the interviewee, Liu Cong and Zhang Ziqi are pseudonyms)

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