The Diwaniyah radio show (Marina FM) this afternoon hosted Dr. Reem Al-Radwan who was talking about the necessity of premarital screening for genetic and infectious diseases.
According to Dr. Reem, the Ministry of Health represented by a group of researchers is pushing for the formulation of a law that requires couples intending on getting married to get screened before they tie the knot.
The mind boggling element of this is that this proposed law is not even on the agenda of any of the committees in parliament. Since it was formulated by the research group, the MP’s have not pushed for this proposal to have any priority in past parliamentary sessions. There is hope that in the new session of Parliament that this crucial proposal will be shaped into law.
Why should couples wanting to get married be screened?
There are two types of things a person will be screened for:
1) Genetic diseases such as Thalassemia, an inherited blood disorder that affects many people especially in our part of the world. Even if you or your partner don’t have the disease, you may be a carrier and that is the problem.
2) Infectious diseases like : Hepatitis (hcv, hbv); AIDS; syphilis.
These kinds of diseases are contagious and can affect your spouse and your children.
What does this proposal entail?
Those intending to get married must bring a certified copy of their tests results to be shown to the Mulla carrying out the marriage contract.
If there are any complications, then the hospital notifies the concerned person and there are two types of counseling sessions provided.
The first counseling session will be after notification of the individual by the hospital. The person will be informed of the ramifications of the test result.
The second counseling session will include the person and their intended partner. This is to explain what may happen should they get married.
So in effect, there will be no law saying they cannot get married. However, people must be aware of the possible consequences of their union when they are carriers of genetic diseases and when they have contagious infections.
Dr. Reem said that many people were afraid it was an invasion of their privacy. But the benefits of screening far out weigh any possible negative effects.
For example, one of the radio hosts stated that once a woman called up to consult the lawyer on air whether she had the right to sue her husband whom she says transmitted the HIV virus to her.
Furthermore, Dr. Reem discussed the cost of treating thalassemia patients.
Can you believe that each thalassemia patient costs the Kuwaiti government 2 million KD per year? And that each bag of blood for transfusions costs 120 KD?
She cited the example of Cyprus where mandatory screening was enforced and now there are practically no new Thalassemia cases for the past five years.
Sedna said:
Hope they go through with it.
What’s parliament arguing about these days anyway?
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You mean hope they put it on the agenda to even consider it!!
Parliament? They are back in session now and new committees have been formed.
J
philosophical observer said:
syphilis is a dangerous disease,
syphilitic babies are born with pretty nasty disabilities.
the widespread proliferation of prostitution means more and more guys will be getting syphilis,
so screening process is a good idea, although it might reveal the sexual habits of some guys (and women too)
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That is why prostitution should be regulated instead of hush hush. We know it will always exist. We must think out of the box and provide regulation and health care if possible.
J
jessyz said:
I think testing is a good idea, it could prevent lots of diseases and would definitely save lots of people pain and grief.
I am also wondering would the cost of screening outweigh the cost of treatment, especially if it became mandatory?
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It seems so in the long run. If you think about it: it costs 2 million KD a year to take care of one person with thelassimia.
Same goes for treatments for other genetic and contagious diseases: prevention is always better than cure.
Jewaira
Maydoun said:
One more good reason for cousins not to marry. Amen!
Consanguinity is plain dull and boring – we must learn to spice up our lives just a little bit through disparate couplings.
The health benefits come as freebies.
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Thank you.
J
philosophical observer said:
i never understood cousin marriages.,
why do people do it (most of them are arranged marriages).
no religion promotes it, not to mention it is unhealthy.
Some families think its a good way to preserve the joint family wealth, but should that be any reason to force cousins to marry?
The organism causing syphilis can be transferred by body fluids, so please, think before you kiss some random guy/girl
There are clear benefits to being both cautious and conservative.
Tell your future wife/ girlfriend / husband / boyfriend to get a blood test for HIV, hepatitis, gonorrhea, chlamydia
(i am in an advising mood)
and one more thing, try to avoid public toilets, those are a paradise of germs.
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I take it then cousins are not encouraged to marry in Bangladesh?
And do you have mandatory screening for couples planning to marry there?
Thanks for the advice.
Jewaira
شوشو said:
Its interesting how everybody ticked the first choice BES wegt elsej I doubt we’ll all commit to that
عن نفسي عادي اكون ناسية عنه
اخواني واهلنا يتزوجون واحنا مابين جهاز العرس والسكن ننسى هالسالفة
افضل ان الحكومة تطرح هالاختيار
**
How widespread are these problems anyway fel KUWAIT?
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ShoSho
I couldn’t find statistics. I tried looking at the Kuwait Medical Association site where there is a link for the Kuwait Thalassemia Society. Unfortunately and shamefully it does not work.
I found this KUNA article: it provides information but no statistics.
Premarital tests important to avoid transmitting thalassemia to child
Health 12/10/2006 3:01:00 PM
The Kuwait Thalassemia Society was only just founded in 1993.
Jewaira
jewaira said:
Kuwait ‘finds’ cataract gene
KUWAIT, Oct 22, (KUNA): Kuwait Univer-sity KU Medical School’s hereditary diseases unit unveiled the gene responsible for children’s cataract disease in Kuwait. Professor Abdulmutalib Behbehani, participating in Kuwait’s 10th conference for “Ophthalmology for children”, scheduled to hold Oct 26, told KUNA that the discovery of the “CY1B1” gene as was published in a US medical journal, opens the door for genetic cure in the future. Dr Behbehani clarified that the genetic study was implemented on 17 Kuwaiti families, where they discovered the gene that causes the cataract disease in children. He asserted the importance of testing before marriage, to prevent genetic diseases.
The conference will cover all issues of children ophthalmology, especially as Kuwait holds highly experienced doctors in the field, and is keen on hosting such events and benefit from international experiences. Dr Behbehani said that the conference will hold for three days under the patronage of Minister of Health Ali Al-Barrak, hosting a number of specialists in the field from countries like US, UK, Canada, Egypt and Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, Ophthalmology Consultant for children in Al-Bahar Clinic, Professor Adel Al-Jazzaf told KUNA on the occasion of the conference that 700 different surgeries were carried out.
philosophical observer said:
cousin marriages are rare in Bangladesh since people think its not a good idea to mix the same blood.
as for the screening process, its unheard of here but the idea is being considered, to prevent the spread of HIV but we don’t have as much resources as Kuwait.
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Surely screening for funding could be sponsored by aid funds and other global charities.
It could also be sponsored locally by such sectors as the famed Grameen Bank</a
Jewaira
philosophical observer said:
Jewaira , regulated prostitution means social and moral degeneration. If prostitution were made legal in kuwait (or any other non western country with conservative values) every 15 year old boy would go to prostitutes, if you think i am exaggerating, then think about bangkok in thailand, or even holland, where they smuggle underage girls for prostitution
Prostitution being made legal would also mean more girls from broken families would join the trade, further harming society.
The answer is to make tougher laws dealing with prostitution along with a mandatory screening process for all people, along with more religious education and family counseling.
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Legal or not, prostitution of all kinds is a very stark reality and it exists even in conservative countries.
Would you rather more disease was spread through pretending it doesn’t happen?
Obviously I do not mean all out approval; but we must acknowledge that it exists and that there must be ways to regulate it even in an indirect manner especially with regards to health issues.
I wish I could say yes, Kuwait should deport without excuse any one who has anything to do with prostitution and take means so that person never enters the country again.
I wish I could say that any Kuwaiti having anything to do with prostitution would be forced to do community service for the rest of his/her life and be under surveillance the whole time, including doing intensive rehab.
But the truth of the matter is uglier than that and we all know it. Those who enforce the law don’t always do so opting to turn a blind eye until something catastrophic happens or some conservatives decide to make some noise.
How do you know what 15 year olds have access to nowadays anyway? Personally, I would hope that illicit sexual encounters they would have would be subject to some regulation.
Jewaira
philosophical observer said:
todays 15 year olds have access to the internet with reality porn, showing prostitutes and other nasty stuff, such as rapes (through mobile phones), this has already led to a downward spiral towards underage sex and exploitation.
If governments can spend billions on defense, then they can definitely spare a few more billions towards strict law enforcement and prevention of human smuggling.
The problem is most countries dont punish sex offenders and pimps with capital punishment.
If capital punishment was applied to all rapists,pimps,child abusers then this horrible trend will be quickly reversed.
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Governments would rather spend on war and destruction. It is all that built up testosterone.
Jewaira
Fons Moonen said:
People are priceless.
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I guess you mean they are worth the money spent
J
christinaohio said:
It’s a very good idea. I’m surprised that cousins still marry anywhere since we know how genetic dieases can effect their offspring. Not a good idea if you want healthy children.
Jewaira said:
That’s true, Christina.
But also in our part of the world, there are genetic diseases that are
prevalent like thalassemia and one should have testing just to make sure
they are not carriers of the disease (even if not related)
Fons Moonen said:
Better test and use condoms.
(people are priceless)
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Good advice Fons
J
Fons Moonen said:
That’s what I mean : people are priceless.
reem said:
what are the other contagious diseases that these medical test include?
How about other sexually transmitted diseases like warts and herpes ?
What about those couples who get married in their home countries ?
Do they have to get back to Kuwait and do these tests ?
Is this premarital testing applicable for foreigners and Kuwaitis ? or just Kuwaitis or just foreigners ?
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Reem
I’m not sure about other sexually transmitted diseases; it’s a good idea for people to come clean before they get married but how easy is that?
I know that premarital testing applies to Kuwaitis. I don’t know about foreigners.
I heard on the radio the other day that any Mulla marrying a couple must see the test certificates. If a Mulla marries a couple without the test certificate he faces repercussions.
Jewaira
Nadeem Al-Duaij, MD said:
I wish things were that simple. The reality is that pre-marital screening is far more controversial than our colleagues in Kuwait want you to believe. Recall that they have biased views (working at the Blood Bank will make you see more of certain diseases and thus formulate a fairly biased opinion on the matter).
Although it has been implemented in some of our neighboring nations to reduce the incidence of entities like thalassemia, the industrialized world stands firmly against it. Indeed, the European Union has issued a report in 2004 that opposed any compulsory testing. Ethically, there is little justification for it.
Here are some questions to ponder on:
- Does Kuwait really have excessive rates of genetic disorders and STIs? What is the valid evidence of it?
- In a country that has minimal regulatory oversight and plenty of corruption, what do you think our government and tested individuals will do with this information (the results, that is)?
- How can such extreme solutions, that I call band-aids, be implemented in a nation that continues to lack proper ethical values and a framework that can adequately debate and evaluate such methods? Recall that we continue to lack experts in the field of public health ethics, anthropology, health policy, etc.
- There is a cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness analysis that needs to be made before any policy can be implemented. Knowing of the high-cost of such testing and the likely low rates of disorders, relative to the population, this is likely not a financially viable endeavor for our nation.
Instead, we must focus on the big picture. Diseases like diabetes (we rank 5th worldwide) and obesity (we overtook the US last year) are destroying our nation and will create a burden that is astronomical.
Food for thought.
jewaira said:
Nadeem
Thank you for taking the time to comment on this important subject. I’m glad to hear another viewpoint.
You raise good questions and I wonder if those who have lobbied for this regulation have considered all those points you made.
I too wonder what the statistics are for genetic disorders and STDs in Kuwait?
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