Legislators vote to add five diseases to newborn screenings

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- Missouri is poised to become one of the few states testing infants for certain kinds of rare and often fatal genetic disorders.

Legislation sent to Gov. Jay Nixon would require that by July 2012, newborns be tested for five lysosomal storage diseases.

The legislation is named after Brady Cunningham, a Southeast Missouri boy who died last month from Krabbe disease, which affects the nervous system.

The state already screens infants for about 50 disorders. Added to that list would be Krabbe, Pompe, Gaucher, Niemann-Pick and Fabry.

New York also tests for Krabbe, and Illinois by next year is to test for Krabbe and several other conditions.