Tampa, FL (Sept. 17, 2008) — Neonatal genetic screening will be the focus of the Tenth Annual Lawton Chiles International Lecture on Maternal and Child Health in the Americas at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Sept. 23, at the Lawton & Rhea Chiles Center for Healthy Mothers and Babies, University of South Florida College of Public Health, 3111 E. Fletcher Ave. in Tampa.

Dr. Manuel Saborio Rocafort

Manuel Saborio Rocafort, MD, PhD, professor of pediatrics and medical genetics at the Universidad de Costa Rica School of Medicine and director of the National Newborn Screening Program at Hospital Nacional de Ninos, will speak on the “Experience of Providing Genetic Screening in the National Health System in a Latin American Country.” He will discuss the evolution, organization and results of the National Neonatal and High Risk Screening Program in Costa Rica. The same lecture will be presented the next day, Sept. 24, at the Lawton Chiles International House at the National Institutes of Health campus in Bethesda, MD.

Dr. Rocafort’s lecture at USF will be preceded by a morning invitational Symposium on Newborn Screening, including presentations on screening for cystic fibrosis and congenital hypothyroidism and an overview of Florida’s expanded newborn screening program.

The event is sponsored by the Chiles Center and College of Public Health at USF and NIH, and supported locally in part by March of Dimes and St. Joseph’s Hospital.

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