Pre-Marital Test to start within Weeks
THE compulsory pre-marital medical check-up, initially scheduled to be launched last September, may begin within the next six to eight weeks, Medical Commission Director Dr Ahmed Naji told Gulf Times yesterday.
“All necessary arrangements, including the laboratory at the Hamad Medical Corporation where the testing will take place, have been concluded but before the actual tests begin, we need to do advertisements and media publicity for the programme at least for a month beforehand,” he said.
Naji also said the pre-marital testing committee, of which he is the chairman, would meet HE the Minister of Health Dr Sheikha Ghalia bint Mohamed al-Thani in a couple of days to discuss a number of issues and set the start date.
The compulsory pre-marriage check-up will test couples for infectious diseases like HIV, hepatitis and genetic and hereditary ailments to prevent them from giving birth to children with complicated diseases, deformities or abnormalities.
The start of the testing in September was postponed due to “technical” reasons.
According to Dr Naji, the testing will be in three stages.
“We expect that up to 94% of couples will need just the first stage testing, while 5% will be required to go for the second stage and the little fragment of 1% for the third stage,” he said, explaining that the second and third stages were meant for specific families with history of complicated hereditary diseases.
On whether the committee would stop the marriage if either of the couple tested positive to any infectious disease, he said: “The duty of the committee is to counsel and test only, but we will inform both of them about the results, which will be confidential, and if they agree to proceed with the marriage, we won’t stop them because according to the Islamic law, we must not stop any intention of marriage even in that situation.”
However, he said that before they could be finally allowed to get married, the couples would have to sign a legal document to that effect to protect the affected partner.
Gulf-Times, Jan. 19, 2009
Whew!!! Sa mga segurista..
