Therapy for the clinical diagnoses cost an estimated 60-400 per cent more than therapy where the diagnoses were made by newborn screening, the study found.

The hospital called to tell us that his newborn screening - a blood test that checks for various disorders not immediately apparent after birth - had come back abnormal.

Testing for both disorders can be done using blood samples collected on the standard newborn screening card.

As treatments improve, newborn screening becomes a possibility for disorders that could benefit from early intervention, but none was previously available.

Newborn screening programs are administered in each jurisdiction, with additions and removals from the panel typically reviewed by a panel of experts.