Children born with severe combined immunodeficiency, or SCID, can be successfully treated with stem-cell transplants within a few months of birth, according to a new study that could put pressure on states that have resisted adding the condition to their newborn-screening programs.

Infants with SCID lack certain blood cells that help people resist infections. The condition is sometimes known as "bubble boy" disease, after a boy with SCID who lived for a time in a sterile plastic bubble. The babies seem healthy at birth, but without treatment, many die by their first birthday, usually from infections. The disease is very rare, occurring in an estimated 1 of 66,000 live births.

The paper, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, looked at data from 240 infants with SCID who received the transplants at 25 centers around the country during a 10-year period. Researchers found that infants who received the transplants at the age of 3½ months or younger had a 94% five-year survival rate.

"This is an extremely important paper because now it is absolutely crystal clear of the need for newborn screening,'' said Ed McCabe, chief medical officer for the March of Dimes Foundation, which supports SCID screening but wasn't involved in the paper.

As part of newborn-screening programs, a few drops of blood are taken from a baby's heel after birth and tested for a number of conditions. In 2010, the Department of Health and Human Services recommended that all states screen for SCID. But states decide for themselves which conditions to test and fewer than half of them currently screen for SCID, according to the Immune Deficiency Foundation, which advocates for SCID screening.