165,000 Saudi engagements cancelled after health checks

About 165,000 wedding engagements are cancelled in Saudi Arabia each year after medical tests reveal genetic incompatibilities, medical officials have told local media.

The figure is about half of the 270,000 to 300,000 couples who undergo mandatory health checks prior to an official marriage, which is more often than not arranged.

The kingdom’s tradition of arranged marriages has tended to result in relatives tying the knot in a bid to keep wealth and prestige within families or tribes.

However, the incest of some relationships also has resulted in unhealthy babies, sometimes with genetic deformities or blood or gastronomical diseases, including Hepatitis and sickle cell.

Medical checks have been mandatory for engaged couples since 2004 in a bid to reduce such health risks.

A study conducted by the Ministry of Health and published in Genetics in Medicine, the official journal of the American College of Medical Genetics and Genomics, in 2007 found 2.14 percent of the 207,333 engaged couples screened were at high-risk of having children with sickle cell disorders and beta thalassemia.

However, of the 2,375 high-risk couples, 89.6 percent still married, despite the known high-risk status.

“The results showed excellent access to the target population. However, the program's objective of decreasing high-risk marriages was not as successful, indicating the need for improvement of health education programs for the public, more efforts in counseling high risk couples, and changes in the strategy of timing of screening in relation to marriage,” the report concluded.

The recent figures suggest there has been significant improvement in educating Saudis of the potential risks.

The director for hereditary and chronic diseases at the Saudi Ministry of Health, Dr. Mohammad Al Saidi, told Saudi Gazette the program aimed to be an international model for a healthy marriage program and to decrease the rate of hereditary diseases.

“The high percentage of failed engagements due to medical risks shows that the society has become more educated and aware of the importance of physical health,” he was quoted as saying.

“The program focuses on five serious hereditary disease including AIDS, sickle cell disease, thalassemia, Hepatitis B and Hepatitis C.

“This will also save money for the family and the country. It will lessen the pressure on medical and health institutes and will hopefully produce a society free of hereditary diseases.”