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The world celebrates International Sickle Cell Day every year, which is one of the most common genetic diseases in the world.
The Arab world today – after nearly two decades of coming together to fight the disease – is celebrating its declining prevalence due to many factors, the most important of which is mandatory pre-marriage exams in some Arab countries, by especially the Arab Gulf States, where many of those coming to the wedding are aware of the importance of the medical examination, which could bring the news of an incompatibility, because both spouses carry the genes for sickle cell disease or thalassemia. And spread the two diseases in the Gulf region and in the Mediterranean basin.
Sickle cell anemia
Sickle cell anemia is one of the most common genetic diseases worldwide, and 5% of the world’s population carry the sickle cell gene.
These people do not suffer from any symptoms, but rather carry the disease from one generation to the next, and their danger lies in their ability to pass it on to new generations if another person carrying the disease is married, while the possibility of passing it on to a new generation disappears if the person is married to a healthy person who does not carry the gene.
The inheritance rate of sickle cell anemia in children of the disease carrier reaches 25%, while they are transferred to the characteristic of the disease carrier of 50%, and if they have four children, they have one infected son and two are carriers of the disease.
Sickle cell anemia affects children with frequent episodes of pain, varying in degrees from moderate to severe, and lasting from a few hours to several weeks.
The seizures multiply dozens of times during the year and can cause children to stay in the hospital for days, exposing them to stunted growth and puberty and frequent infections, and they often have need for blood transfusions due to severe anemia, hence the importance of prenuptial. examinations to reduce the transmission of the disease to new generations.
Sickle cell anemia causes children to have frequent episodes of pain and severe anemia (Pixabay)Checks before marriage
The number of people infected over the past decade in many Arab countries has reached five in every 100 births, and the danger lies in the fact that they are infected and not just carriers of the disease, which prompted governments to oblige those who marry. to carry out real medical examinations which confirm the conformity or the contrast of the genes.
In 2015, Saudi Arabia conducted a survey on the observance of prenuptial exams, and this survey found that 7,637 Saudi men and women had married despite the results of the exam recommending the need not to marry, because they represent 40%. of those who were revealed by the investigation to be carriers of the disease “gene”.
According to local newspapers, these percentages were not related to educational or social level as much as they were related to the prevalence of inbreeding.
Health surveys in the Sultanate of Oman indicate that 6% of the country’s population carry the sickle cell “gene”, while 80% of those who do not match the results of prenuptial exams submit to marriage consummation despite test results indicating the possibility of increasing the risk of infecting children.
With all the attempts by countries to raise awareness and move towards laws to limit the spread of these hereditary diseases, it was difficult for states to force carriers of the disease not to marry, and here Arab women played a role. distinguished role, especially in the Arab Gulf States.
Gulf women’s insistence on working with prenuptial test results has helped reduce rates of genetic diseases in children (Pixabay)Arab women suffered from sickle cell anemia
In the past centuries, consanguineous marriage has spread throughout the Arab world and it cannot be denied that it is one of the most important causes of the epidemic of genetic diseases, to which is added sickle cell disease which appeared mainly in African deserts.
After many severe heat waves that led to high death rates in people with sickle cell disease due to the life-killing dry weather, many women have decided to tackle the disease, be it by setting up workshops and awareness training, or through the family.
Gulf women have taken the initiative to refuse consanguineous marriage in the event that the medical examination proves that the spouses have a ‘gene’ for the disease, and grandmothers have also helped raise awareness of the disease. seriousness of genetic diseases by the possibility of abstaining from attending the weddings of their children and grandchildren, if the results of the prenuptial examinations show a mismatch between the spouses. And then the rates of infected births began to decline in the Arab world, according to the Women’s Initiative.
After nearly two decades of starting to use the legislation relating to prenuptial examinations and what is related to limiting the spread of hereditary diseases, the Arab world has started to see a significant drop in the rates of births affected by the disease. sickle cell disease, so that the proportion of the number of people infected with the disease has increased from 4 per 100 births to 6 per 1,000 births.
In Oman, the President of the Omani Society for Inherited Blood Diseases, Dr Thuraya Al Hosania, is leading awareness campaigns and combating the spread of sickle cell disease in the Sultanate of Oman, and many tribal women and great families of the Sultanate. refused the blessing of marriage if the results of prenuptial examinations show a discrepancy, in order to reduce the transmission of sickle cell anemia and other genetic diseases of children and grandchildren.
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