Review of a popular media piece

Since galactosemia is so rare, there isn’t much in the media about it. I did, however, find an article from a small newspaper called the Quad-City Times that chronicled the story of a mother discovering her newborn son had galactosemia (Baker). The story used this anecdote to anchor the central idea of the story: Iowa is the most efficient state in quickly identifying potential metabolic and genetic disorders in newborns because of how quickly they transport blood samples to a lab for analysis.

Without early identification, meaning within the first 10 days of life, galactosemia’s effects can be deadly. Babies do not possess the GALT enzyme to break down galactose, a simple sugar present in milk and many other food products, which makes galactose a poison to their bodies. This article used its leading anecdote, which mentioned the baby’s refusal to drink his mother’s milk, before launching into the relief the mother experienced by identifying galactosemia early on. Her son, now five years old, still experiences the disease’s symptoms, but has learned to live with his ultra-restrictive diet.

(Deidre Baker/Quad City Times)

While the article tapped into a relatively unexplored subject in the media — newborn screening — it did not use enough sources, whether studies, experts or physicians, to better explain the danger in taking too long to send newborn screening exams to labs for analysis. The mother’s son is only one of thousands of cases every year, and the article did not mention any other diseases. It simply explained galactosemia, which is certainly acceptable for a news article, but it did not explain galactosemia’s symptoms nor sufficiently illustrate the risk of death associated with the disease.

It’s especially interesting to me to read health and science articles because I want to become a health and medical writer. This article illustrates many common problems with stories that seek to explain complicated topics — it is overly simplistic and does not use enough research nor expert input to craft a more in-depth piece. Galactosemia is poorly understood, even by researchers and physicians, as are many other rare diseases in children — the article should have made mention of these complexities as well to even further emphasize the importance of quickly evaluating newborn screening tests.

Since this was a news article, there is no implicit opinion. However, the article’s newsworthiness centers around Iowa’s efficiency in analyzing newborn tests compared to other states; the author should have found anecdotes from other states in which blood tests were given to labs too late, or an incident in which a newborn’s health was impeded for life due to the hospital and lab’s inefficiency. Rather than speaking in vague terms with no research or expert to back it up, the author should have done more research and reporting to better explain to readers the dangers of galactosemia and other diseases like it that need to be identified early.