JEDDAH: ARAB NEWS: A Saudi scholarship student in Britain, Nuha Al-Rayess, has discovered a new genetic mutation that leads to muscle atrophy, weakened limbs and, finally, total paralysis in some cases. The tests she conducted showed that the principal cause for this condition is intermarriage and reproduction among family members.
Al-Rayess noted that this disease is known in medical terms as "heritage paralysis." However, its genetic causes were previously unknown. As such, her new discovery is a significant leap forward in the world of genetic disease research.
Al-Rayess said that 70 percent of hereditary diseases in Saudi Arabia occur due to people marrying and subsequently producing children with their blood-line relatives. Indeed, the Kingdom has some of the highest rates in the world for familial marriages, making it easier for the disease to continue in future generations.
The disease occurs in children because the child's mother and the father carry the same gene of the disease on some level, which is then transferred to their children.
Al-Rayess added that this ailment is much more prominent in villages and rural areas than in cities, as these kind of marriages are the norm in these areas.
She said that the Kingdom is in need of greater awareness about the issue, as many tribes continue to force their sons and daughters to marry their cousins — a practise that Al-Rayess feels is fed by their lack of knowledge and ignorance of the risks associated with such an action.
She observed that many families do continue this practice despite knowing the risks. "The family then becomes more accepting of having a sick child among them merely to preserve beliefs and customs about intermarriage," she said.
Al-Rayess said that during her studies in Britain, it seemed that most doctors and researchers turn immediately to Saudi Arabia when they require samples for such relationships and phenomena, as they see it as a fertile environment to study genetic diseases in our societies.
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