Screening of jaundice in all infants can help in decreasing the number of severe incidences, as per researchers.

Screening babies for excessive bilirubin in the blood can "significantly decrease the incidence of severe jaundice" as found by researchers at the UCSF Children's hospital and Kaiser Permanente's Division of Research in Oakland, California.

Jaundice can cause seizures and brain damage too in certain rare cases. A recent study is one of the first of its kind to analyze the effectiveness of the screening of this disease in newborns.

Most of the infants have a risen bilirubin in the days following their birth, and very high blood levels can sometimes be toxic for the nervous system. It is important to detect a rise in these levels in babies so that treatment can be started at an early stage.

Researchers also said that high bilirubin levels can be treated with light therapy, which facilitates the bilirubin to convert into a form that the body can remove.

"While we know that early identification of bilirubin levels before reaching toxic levels is important, bilirubin screening has not been universal, as physicians have decided which infants to screen based upon their degree of jaundice and clinical risk factors", said lead author of the study, Michael Kuzniewicz, a neonatologist at UCSF Children's hospital.

A 62 percent reduction was observed in the number of newborns with very high bilirubin levels with universal screening.