CAIRO: A seminar that warned against the hazards of consanguine marriages called for introducing laws that would make it obligatory for newly-married couples with blood relations and those considering the nuptial bond, to take pre-marriage tests that can reveal hereditary diseases and disorders.
The seminar, organized last week at the National Research Center, is part of a countrywide campaign launched in November 2006 to target the ill-effects of consanguine marriages. It has also suggested the formation of special team that would be tasked with touring rural areas with the aim of spreading awareness.
Part of the campaign will focus on intermediate and high schools and promote decision makers’ policies in that regard.
Specialists, families with disabled children of consanguine marriages, as well as newlywed couples and singles of both sexes attended.
The families who related their macabre experiences stressed that hereditary diseases have marred their budgets and social life.
“Marriage is one of the most sacred of institutions in which each partner should be each other’s match religiously, socially and ethically, said the seminar’s moderator Dr Adel Ashour.
“The medical compatibility, which continues to be overlooked despite the fact that it threatens the stability of marriages, is an important facet of married life, added Ashour
The spread of hereditary diseases among the Muslim and Christian community in Egypt has been tightly linked with consanguine marriages.
According to specialists, one in four babies is reported either Mongol or with congenital deficiencies and other medical problems, all of which are the result of parents being close relatives.
Statistics show that in Egypt marriages involving first and second relations range between 20 and 60 percent, but a more detailed regional report highlighted that the highest rate of occurrence of first relation nuptials is in Jordan (32 percent), followed by Kuwait and Saudi Arabia (31 percent), Iraq ( 29 percent), UAE (26 percent), Bahrain (21 percent) and Egypt (11 percent).
Congenital deficiencies among newborns in Egypt have been estimated at between 1.16 and 3.17 percent.
The incidence of hereditary diseases increased because newborns are surviving beyond infancy, owing to advances in childcare and intensive vaccination campaigns.
Under the auspices of Egypt’s First Lady Suzanne Mubarak, a report on newborns was commissioned. It tested the deficiency in the secretion of goiter’s hormone, which facilitates the discovery of other hereditary diseases that cause mental retardation that can only be treated at an early stage.
Research in Egypt revealed that hereditary flaws at birth were detected primarily in the nervous system. It also found that the rate of extinct hereditary diseases has surged with the increase of consanguine marriages.
Some hereditary skin, heart, blood, gland, bone diseases as well as mental retardation, deafness and cleft lips have increased among blood related couples.
The campaign against consanguine marriages stressed that related couples wishing to tie the knot are required to undergo a number of tests that would alert them to any predisposition they have for having disfigured children.
Ashour told The Daily Star Egypt: “A foreign sports expert, who once appeared on an Egyptian English language channel, argued that many young men and women had been disqualified from a potential sports career as a result of medical tests, noting that these children were, for the most part, products of consanguine marriages.
A lot of these marriages still take place in rural areas. In a social climate that continues to look upon strangers with suspicion and discomfort this remains the ideal type of match.
It is also preferred in cases where land-owning families want to ensure that property stays in the family.
There is also the feeling that consanguineous marriages will last longer, for in times of conflict both parties would bear in mind the blood relation and allow relatives to step in to settle differences.
While these marriages are practically more convenient, we can’t ignore the fact that the offspring won’t always be secure against hereditary-induced disfigurements, experts said, stressing the important role health officials should play in the campaign.
Ashour explained: “In Cairo there are two major centers that offer the tests: one is at the National Research Center, the second at Ain Shams University. Efforts are in full swing to set up more of them in the provinces.
He pointed out that the couples taking these tests have to travel a long way from rural areas. They also have to live close to the labs for three weeks.
He added: “But it is worthwhile going through all this, for the deficient births usually require much effort and money.
“There is also no guaranteed cure for maladies like mental retardation, he warned.
