Although premarital consultation clinics might tell these couples that their tests showed them to be incompatible, many still insist on going ahead with their plans, marrying partners who are usually close relatives, knowing full well the likelihood that their offspring could suffer from a host of illnesses. Doctors believe that health education is the only way to convince couples to take health hazards into account, especially since these clinics have no authority to prevent genetically incompatible marriages. Pediatric Consultant and former Director of the Maternity and Pediatric Hospital and Premarital Tests Center, Dr. Hani Al-Hashmi believes that the main task of consultation clinics is providing information as well as medical advice to incompatible couples. Doctors in these clinics provide information to couples regarding the possibilities of genetic diseases occurring in their children, especially sickle cell anemia and Thalassemia, a blood disease, leaving the actual decision to marry to the couple themselves. Dr. Khaled Bawaked, Family and Community Medicine Consultant agrees with Dr. Al-Hashmi, saying that health education is the key to delivering good advice and information to couples that plan on getting married. Dr. Bawaked added that the dangerous effects of congenital and familial diseases are not confined to patients. They affect entire families and societies as well, since these diseases tend to be chronic, which is why the only means of protection is to avoid genetically incompatible marriages.The Ministry of Health has revealed that the majority of potentially dangerous marriage certificates were filed in the eastern region with a percentage of 55.7 percent, followed by Jizan, in which 18.1 percent of all incompatible marriages were recorded and Ahsaa' with 10.8 percent. Dr. Bawaked explained that these figures are attributable to the large number of genetically predisposed disease carriers in these regions. Official statistics revealed that the total number of sickle cell anemia carriers is 20,530, while number of people suffering from the disease is 1251. As for Thalassemia, the number of carriers was found to be 15,740 and the number of people with the actual disease is 384. In its efforts to eradicate or reduce the incidence of these diseases, the Ministry of Health established more than 123 centers that conduct premarital tests in addition to 20 consultation clinics that provide counseling to couples that turn out to be incompatible. __
