Management of birth defects and haemoglobin disorders

Overview

On 19-19 May 2006, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation held a joint meeting in Geneva entitled The Management of Birth Defects and Haemoglobin Disorders. The meeting was convened at the request of the WHO's Human Genetics Programme (HGN) following publication of the March of Dimes Global Report on Birth Defects in January 2006 (Christianson et al, 2006).

Meeting participants included 18 experts from developing and industrialized countries and nine staff from WHO Headquarters representing the following programmes: HGN, Newborn and Child Health, Classification and Terminology, Nutrition, Reproductive Health and Research, Disability and Rehabilitation and Making Pregnancy Safer.

The meeting had five goals.  There were to:

• ratify the data on the global tool of birth defects presented in the 2006 March of Dimes Global Report on Birth Defects;
• agree upon a definition of terms;
• develop a five-year collaboration plan for strengthening care and prevention of birth defects in low- and middle-income countries, bearing in mind the different spectrum of genetic disorders that may occur;
• develop a five-year plan for the WHO for strengthening care and prevention of haemoglobin disorders (sickle cell disease (SCD) and thalassaemias) in low- and middle-income countries; and
• determine how potential stakeholders (WHO Regional Offices; international and national governmental agencies; foundations and other non-governmental organizations; parent/patient and other lay support groups; the private sector; and donor organizations) could contribute to these efforts.