Pre-marriage screening urged to ward off hereditary diseases
LAHORE: Speakers at a seminar urged the government to make psychological and moral counselling and medical screening mandatory to identify congenital and non-communicable diseases.
Addressing a seminar titled “Pre-marriage Counselling and Screening to Identify Congenital and Non-Communicable Diseases”, they said doctors and specialists should create awareness among people about the significance of the tests.
The seminar was organised by the Mir Kahalilur Rahman Memorial Society in collaboration with the Maternal Newborn Child Health Programme (MNCH) and the United Nation Population Fund (UNFPA) at a hotel here on Thursday.
The chief guest, Punjab Population Welfare Secretary Tahir Raza Naqvi said congenital and inherited diseases posed a multifaceted problem which was increasing day by day with the increasing population, which was itself a problem.
He said public-private partnership was necessary to make people aware of it on a large scale. He said the government was ready to extend any kind of support for the cause.
He said there should be a holistic approach to solve the problem of inherited diseases. “Doctors can play a vital role in this regard as they are fully aware of effects of the diseases,” he added.
MPA Uzma Bokhari said awareness in young boys and girls was vital and they should be convinced why pre-marriage blood tests were necessary. She said the future of the children depended upon their health, which should be perfect.
She said children with bad health would be a burden on the already bad economy. She said the government should pay and arrange for the tests.
Dr Sabeeha said the programme of testing blood and screening congenital diseases was to create awareness among the educated masses. She said education was compulsory to understand that these diseases might transmit to offspring from parents if neglected.
She said blood testing was not at all un-Islamic and Iran and the UAE were already practicing it.
She said cousin marriages had played a significant role in spreading the diseases and they should be absolutely avoided to keep children happy and healthy.
She said there should be legislation in the assembly for pre-marriage blood testing and it should be made compulsory across the country.
Dr Yasmeen Rashid said the government was not doing enough to deal with prenatal care and diseases of mother and newborn and it should arrange more programmes to cope with the problem.
She said 2-3 children out of 100 were born defected in Pakistan. She said the genetic issue was a single problem but the chromosomal disorder could create multiple defects. She said in Pakistan, 5 to 7 per cent children were carriers of thalassaemia major. She said the prevention strategy included awareness, target screening, parental diagnosis and finally the termination of affected pregnancies.
Dr Aslam Chaudhry said the whole world was practicing pre-marriage counselling. He said blood tests should be made mandatory before marriages in general and before cousin marriages in particular.
Dr Abdur Raoof Chaudhry said everyone in general and doctors in particular should create awareness among the general public in this respect. He said media should play a significant role in spreading such awareness.
Azmat K Majid said carrot juice could be useful in pregnancies and the pregnant females should avoid taking iron sulphate.
Auriya Maqbool Jan stressed moral counselling together with medical counselling. He cited western societies, especially the US, where more and more good looking and intelligent children were born with the advancement of medical science but nobody teaches them moralities, as a result of which, whole society was decaying.
He said one million children out of 10 million in the US were born out of wedlock, which was a miserable situation.
Dr Farooq Akhtar, Dr Yaqoob Qazi, Prof Dr Nazir Ahmed and Prof Dr Nadeem Hayat Malik also spoke on the occasion. The seminar was hosted by MKRMS Chairman Wasif Nagi. Kashan Haider, Ali Imran and Mian Shehzad Raoof assisted him.
Source: The News
Date:12/4/2009
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