RIYADH, 11 September 2003 — Prince Talal ibn Abdul Aziz, president of the Arab Gulf Program for United Nations Development Organizations (AGFUND), yesterday called for compulsory premarital testing for congenital blood diseases.
In answer to a question about the national campaign to promote premarital medical checkups for Saudis, the prince said he was grateful to the government for adopting the measures proposed by AGFUND last year.
“The Ministry of Health and private organizations, particularly those in Al-Ahsa region, have taken dramatic steps in this regard. I thank the Council of Ministers for giving its directives to judges, courts, medical institutions, and related bodies to stress the importance of an optional premarital medical test,” the prince said.
“I think this was an important step, especially since inherited blood diseases claim the lives of dozens in Saudi Arabia every day,” Prince Talal said.
A study on congenital blood diseases submitted to the Council of Ministers in 2002 concluded that 1.5 million Saudis had or were carriers of inherited blood diseases. Thalassemia and anemia are the two most common blood diseases in Saudi Arabia.
Thalassemia is characterized by a reduced or erroneous production of hemoglobin, the respiratory pigment contained in the red cells. Depending on the type, the disease results in anything between mild anemia and prenatal death.
Prevention was the only way to combat inherited blood diseases, the prince said adding: “I hope the next step will be a decision to make the test obligatory.”
The Prince denied such a decision was un-Islamic. “If the decision was not Islamic, the government would not have adopted it,” he said.
Prince Talal said the government introduced compulsory pre-marital tests for foreigners 20 years ago, and by the same token it was quite feasible to introduce such tests for Saudis. Prince Talal also announced yesterday the winning names of the AGFUND International Prize for pioneering development projects for the year 2003.
The AGFUND prize committee picked the three winners of the $300,000 prize from 110 nominated projects in 46 countries in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
The winner in the category of rehabilitation and job creation for immigrants and refugees was the Unifem Regional Program on Empowering Women Migrant Workers in Asia.
The project is being carried out in five Asian countries, namely Jordan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Philippines.
Child Line, a project by a private company in India, won the category prize for projects in the field of child protection.
Appropriate Technologies for Enterprise Creation, developed by a group of individuals in Kenya, was the winning project for the category allocated for projects in the field of combating poverty.
The committee also announced the categories of AGFUND’s international prize for next year.
They are: Facilitating the participation of women in the job market, conserving the environment through social activities, and providing children with information technology.
The cash prize for the first category is $150,000, for the second category $100,000 and for the third $50,000.
Yesterday’s meeting was attended by several prominent AFGUND board members including the Republic of Uruguay’s first lady Mercedes Menafra de Batlle, President of the Islamic Development Bank Ahmed Muhammad Ali, former director general of UNESCO Professor Muhammad Younis, Director General of the OPEC Development Fund Dr. Yousef Abdullah, and others.
