The Washington State Board of Health (Board) has authority to define and adopt rules for screening Washington-born infants for heritable conditions. The Board uses a defined set of criteria that conditions are evaluated against to assess inclusion on the panel.
The Board received a petition for rulemaking that would require newborns to be screened for congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) for those infants who failed the newborn hearing screening. cCMV occurs when a pregnant individual is infected during pregnancy with cytomegalovirus and passes the infection to their unborn child. It can result in hearing loss and is the leading cause of nonhereditary, sensorineural hearing loss. cCMV can lead to developmental delay, vision loss, and seizures.
After a briefing, presentation, and discussion at their March 10 online public meeting, Board members voted to deny the petition after determining that the information available did not meet the standard of that which has historically been provided in the preliminary review. Members directed staff to conduct a preliminary review of cCMV against the Board’s criteria and present for further discussion at the Board’s October meeting.
Currently, six states require targeted newborn screening for cCMV, and an additional six states require education for the public and health professionals regarding cCMV. In Washington, some healthcare facilities including Seattle Children’s Hospital and Sacred Heart Medical Center in Spokane provide screening for cCMV in infants who fail the newborn hearing screening test.
The Administrative Procedures Act allows any person to petition a state agency to request adoption, amendment, or repeal of any rule. Upon receipt of a petition, the Board has 60 days to either (1) deny the petition in writing stating the reasons and, as appropriate, offer other means for addressing the concerns raised by the petitioner, or (2) accept the petition and initiate rulemaking.
