UAE | Health
Lax screening puts newborns at risk
The UAE is still seeing newborns with thalassaemia, a genetic blood disorder, despite a year-old law mandating couples to screen for the gene before marriage.
- By Nina Muslim, Staff Reporter
- Published: 00:00 May 8, 2007
Dubai: The UAE is still seeing newborns with thalassaemia, a genetic blood disorder, despite a year-old law mandating couples to screen for the gene before marriage.
These developments have prompted doctors to call for strict enforcement of the law on World Thalassaemia Day.
The UAE passed a law in April last year, requiring all engaged couples to undergo screening for haemoglob-inopathies, namely thalassaemia and sickle cell anaemia, on top of HIV/Aids and Hepatitis B and C, in order to obtain a marriage licence and marry here. Health officials have been touting the necessity of undergoing pre-marital screening since 2001.
However, six years later, pre-marital screening on the genetic diseases has still not been fully implemented in some parts of the UAE.
New patients
Dr Khowla Belhoul, director of the Thalassaemia Centre at Al Wasl Hospital, told Gulf News that the centre was still receiving new patients despite the law.
"Pre-marital screening is a requirement to get married, but it is not fully enforced. We're still getting new patients from couples who are just married," she said, adding that most of the new patients were from the Northern Emirates and expatriates. Although the number of new patients has fallen over the years, doctors regard the number as still too high for comfort, saying not enough marriages between thalassaemia carriers have been prevented.
Saeed Jafar Al Awadi, thalassaemia patient and board member of the Emirates Thalassaemia Society, told Gulf News that he discovered couples in the UAE were issued fitness to marry certificates although they have not been screened for the genetic disease. He recently came back from a nation-wide tour of thalassaemia facilities.
"Clinics are not doing screening for thalassaemia, only for HIV and other diseases, like before. They will only do it if the people ask for it. But the problem is, people have to know about the disease and risk in order to ask for the test," he said.
He added that patchy implementation of the screening law also occurred in Dubai, based on his brother's recent experience. "My brother knows he has thalassaemia so his wife has to be tested. But the hospital only did the test after they were asked," he said.
Dr Maisam Lateef, specialist senior registrar at the centre, told Gulf News that the priority for the UAE now was to implement a preventive programme nationwide.
Testing for hereditary illnesses 'by August'
The Ministry of Health, which is responsible for the pre-marital screening programme, admitted that they have not been able to implement the pre-marital screening requirement as they had to complete the preparation process.
Dr Ameen Al Amiri, Assistant undersecretary for blood transfusion and research services and chairman of the marital screening programme committee, told Gulf News that they could not implement the law, announced last year, as they had to complete a study on the logistics and prevalence of the disease. There are a total of 582 registered thalassaemia patients in the UAE.
"It takes a lot of work and preparation for a nation-wide programme. It's not as if you can announce something today and expect it to take hold the next day," he said.
He said so far the committee has implemented two categories of the five-category pre-marital screening guidelines, which are testing for viral infections HIV and hepatitis and blood group.
He added that the committee would implement the hereditary disease screening requirement, which is Category Three, hopefully by August.
Share this article
Popular in UAE
-
Your pictures
Readers' pictures
The best reader pictures from around the UAE this week
Latest news
- Dance group brings taste of Korean culture to Abu Dhabi
- Africa segment at Dubai film festival
- Campaign to emphasise unity of UAE begins
- EAD studies focus on water security
- Facing battle against obesity in UAE schools
- Abu Dhabi plans to take comedy seriously
- Dubai Press Club marks 10th anniversary
- Visitors flock to see latest offerings at Sharjah book fair
- UAE combats human trafficking
- Ministry denies hijacking of UAE-flagged ship
- Saif meets special needs centre users
- Man says he repaid 95% of amount he embezzled
- Dubai saleswoman claims she was duped, raped
- Female clerk, waiter deny drug trafficking charges
- Gulf health officials slam unethical advertising
Community Reports
-
Help me find my precious cat
Raif, my cute eight-month-old ‘fur ball', went missing in Abu Dhabi's Al Bateen area last month
-
Pavement parking irks pedestrians
Gulf News reader calls on authorities to step in and stop car owners from invading pathways meant for safe walking
-
Faded parking lines pose a problem
Motorists could be fined for parking incorrectly even though they can hardly see the boundaries in the designated areas
-
School buses block residential parking
Commercial vehicles taking up free parking facilities in Al Wuheida, inconveniencing residents in surrounding villas
