Manama: A pre-marital medical check-up to test couples for infectious diseases such as HIV, hepatitis and genetic ailments will be implemented on December 13, health officials said.
Health officials said this would help prevent would-be couples from giving birth to children with complicated diseases or deformities.
A media campaign aims to promote awareness as most conservative families, keen on inter-cousin marriages, will have to deal with it.
Ahmad Teebi, professor of Paediatrics and Genetics at Well Cornell Medical College-New York and Qatar and adviser to the Supreme Council of Health, said that married couples in the Arab world are usually cousins or distant relatives, which explains why diseases spread in most Arab countries.
He added that premarital screening was highly important, regardless of the relationship between couples.
