Hereditary diseases are threatening in-bred families, warn doctors

[Vik]

Hereditary diseases are threatening in-bred families, warn doctors



SANA’A, Aug. 6 — Yemeni doctors warn that hereditary diseases caused by "getting married into relatives" represent a major danger to Yemeni society.

Though many Yemenis prefer marry into same family with their relatives for considerations related to tribal and social heritage, doctors said that the practice should be discontinued, following reports about a family of 200 people all carrying the same hereditary disease.

Saba News Agency reported last week that a "family living in a difficult situation" in the Bait Murad region of Hajja governorate, is suffering due to a disease that caused the death of 25 of its members in addition to permanently debilitating another 12 family members. The report said that this hereditary disease is also threatening the rest of the family's members.

The disease, which was unknown at the time of publication, began appearing in the family in 1932. This find attracted the attention of a group of doctors who said that the disease is a "dominant inheritance” that increased due to marriage between family members.

The occurrences have dramatically increased among the third generation of the family's members.

A dominant hereditary disease is one in which the infection of males and females, as well as children and adults, are similar. According to doctors, the family's disease may be "hereditary cerebella-spinal dystrophy,” which infects the cerebellum in the brain and leads to the inability to move or talk. It also affects the spinal cord and causes atrophy in the limbs of sufferers.

Doctors said that in the case of dominant hereditary diseases, "solutions are complicated and difficult," pointing out that the treatment process may take dozens of years. They confirmed that the only solution to such health problems is through a "commitment to pre-marriage DNA testing for the expected couple." They suggested that already-married couples should conduct test on their fetus during the first months of the woman's pregnancy to make sure the child will not be harmed.

Mohammed Murad, 24, the only person in the family to hold a high school certificate, said that the first infection in the family was reported about 70 years ago and that the disease originally only affected family members who were over 40 years old. However, during the last 10 years, many of the occurrences of the disease were reported among children.



Hereditary diseases spreading in Yemen

Although there are no statistics regarding hereditary diseases in Yemen, Dr. Najib Ghanim, the Chairman of Health and Population Committee in Parliament, said that hereditary diseases of various forms spread in Yemen among people who get married to their relatives, something commonly acknowledged throughout the world. The most common hereditary diseases in Yemen are Thalassemia and Sickle Cell Anemia, which both affect the production of blood cells.

"As a result of the risks of hereditary diseases, the Safe Motherhood Project adopted health in Parliament in cooperation with the Ministry of Health tried to oblige both people in the expected couple to get premarital tests before making the marriage contract to ensure they are disease free," said Ghanim, adding that the project wasn't approved by the Parliament "as some members objected some terms in the law that contain sanctions."

He stressed that Yemeni society should be educated and made aware of the dangers of hereditary diseases as well as the importance of pre-marital testing in order to prevent the expected couple from passing on any potential hereditary diseases to their children. "If the tests prove the couple carries a hereditary disease, they shouldn’t get married to each other as the risk of potential infection will be more than 50 percent," He further pointed out that Yemen's Thalassemia Association registered 850 affected families in Sana'a alone.

Dr. Ali Al-Meeri, the Vice-dean of Sana'a University's Faculty of Medicine, said that the university has specialized centers to study such phenomena and to document all cases in the country.

He added that other countries have hereditary diseases, but Yemen still suffers from a lack of social awareness about these issues.

Al-Meeri confirmed that an education campaign should be launched in order to inform people about hereditary diseases and their risks.

URL: yementimes.com