Health and societal infant mortality burden of neonatal hemolytic disorders

Hemolytic disorders in neonates, once exceedingly common causes of infant mortality, have become increasingly rare and now largely non-fatal. Global advancements in neonatal care and deeper understanding of the mechanisms of neonatal hemolysis have significantly improved survival outcomes, particularly among those in high-income countries. However, regional disparities persist due to non-equitable healthcare access. Their long-lasting health consequences have been attributed to social, demographic factors that are most likely amenable to healthcare governance. In this review, we focus our attention to neonatal hemolytic disorders to i) analyze data resourced from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) 2021 report; ii) study the trends in infant mortality rates (IMR) as related to hemolytic disorders including its severe complication, extreme hyperbilirubinemia (EHB-IMR); iii) evaluate geospatial disparities among GBD super regions; and iv) examine these trends in relation to the socio-demographic index (SDI) of the countries that comprise the “super-regions”. From 1991 to 2021, global EHB-related IMR has declined significantly, from 73 to 25 per 100,000 live births. By 2021, EHB and kernicterus accounted for only 0.7 % of all under-five deaths. High-income countries have dramatically minimized hemolytic disease fatalities, but matched progress eludes regions like South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. The inverse relationship between SDI and EHB-IMR highlight these national disparities to manifest as slower decline in IMR. In order to achieve equitable healthcare access for all regions, an improved understanding of the societal risk factors would guide re-engineering solutions that are also empowered by audited resource utilization to evaluate remedial governance policies.