RIYADH, 27 February 2007 — Up to 90 percent of Saudi couples who tested positive in premarital blood tests ignored warnings of transmitting diseases to their children and proceeded to marry, according to a Health Ministry official.
“Ninety percent of them carried on with their marriage in the first year of when the tests were made mandatory,” said Dr. Ali Al-Amri, head of the Non-Chronic Diseases Department at the Health Ministry, while speaking in the Arab Child Health Conference in Riyadh.
Al-Amri added, “In the second year, 88 percent went ahead with marriage plans, followed by 84 percent in the third year.”
The Health Ministry official noted that negligence among Saudi youth toward the seriousness of the matter could have drastic results in future. He added that couples’ stubbornness to proceed with marriage plans despite being tested positive was a clear indication that people were ignoring Health Ministry advice regarding the matter.
Al-Amri said that the ministry currently provides free testing in local hospitals to all Saudis who wish to marry and that Health Ministry personnel inform couples if they are tested positive and provide them with counseling.
“If things continue in this manner, the ministry will need 10 years to achieve 50 percent success in the nationwide campaign,” he said, adding that the negligence means that more children, who risk having blood diseases, will be born.
Al-Amri said that due to the urgency of the matter, the Health Ministry has suggested that it be raised in a future symposium to be held in the Kingdom with the cooperation of several ministries and concerned authorities.
He proposed mandatory blood tests for secondary school students and said that by doing so, social and emotional issues would not interfere in a person’s decision in the future. He also said it was necessary that a fatwa (religious edict) be issued to prohibit marriage if the male and female both tested positive for blood diseases.
Speaking at the conference yesterday, another Health Ministry official, Khaled Al-Zahrani, said that the ministry had registered 4,440 positive cases in 2005.
On his part, Sheikh Salman Al-Ouda, a religious scholar, said blood diseases transmitted genetically to children was still a “vague issue” for many scholars in the Kingdom. “It is imperative that a symposium be conducted where the clear picture could be illustrated,” he said.
The three-day Arab Children Conference concluded yesterday after various sessions with a number of recommendations. Delegates from 22 Arab countries participated.
* Give disabled children the right to social health care and rehabilitate them into society.
* Support programs for HIV infected children, as per the treaties signed to protect the rights of children.
* Provide social and psychological health care to children in crises or in war.
* Construct an Arab center for humanitarian aid in times of crises or war.
* The need to take all necessary measures to reduce obesity among children, emphasizing the role of the public and private sector to establish programs to fight the trend.
* Request the Arab League to prepare a report every two years on the health situation of children with the support of health ministries.
* Request for initiating a local database within every Arab country to register the numbers of child abuse cases.
* Request the Arab League to establish a center for studies and information on child health care.
* Request concerned authorities to increase their efforts in issues related to domestic violence or child abuse.
