HHS Disbands Advisory Committee On Genetic Disorders In Children

NBC News (4/17, Bendix) reports that HHS has “terminated, without explanation,” the Advisory Committee on Heritable Disorders in Newborns and Children, effective April 3. The central role of the advisory committee was “to make recommendations to the” HHS “secretary about which conditions to include on a universal screening panel for newborns.” It had been “scheduled to meet next month to discuss adding two conditions” to the federal government’s Recommended Uniform Screening Panel: metachromatic leukodystrophy (MLD) and Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD).