Haemoglobinopathies and newborn haemoglobinopathy screening in Germany.

Germany has been an immigration country since the early 1950s. In
December 2007, 6.7 million non-German citizens lived in the
country. However, the total number of citizens with a migration
background is 15–20 million, about 9 million of whom come from
countries where sickle cell disease and thalassaemias are frequent.
In a country with 82 million inhabitants health authorities are not
worried by the presence of probably 1000–1500 sickle cell and 450
transfusion-dependent thalassaemia patients, and therefore no
screening or preventive measures have been taken so far on a
national scale. There are plans for a pilot project (1 year) to
screen all newborns for sickle cell disease in obstetric hospitals
in 4–5 cities with more than 20% migrants. Funding and lack of an
infrastructure to provide counselling are major problems.