THALASSEMIA AND COUSIN MARRIAGE

THALASSEMIA AND COUSIN MARRIAGE

According to the latest medical research it is proved that Thalassamia is the inherited blood disorder due to abnormal condition of hemoglobin.Commonly this disease is inherited from parents and cousin marriage is also a vital cause behind this disease.More over it’s due to either a genetic mutation or a deletion of certain key gene fragments. .Basically this disease is divided into two main categories

(a)  Alpha Thalassemia; In this category atleast one of the alpha globin genes has a mutation

(b) Beta Thalassemia; In this category beta globin genes are affected

As i already told you that Thalassemia is an inherited blood disorder in which Hemoglobin adopts the abnormal shape.In actual hemoglobin is found in red blood cell in the form of protein molecule and its function is to carry oxygen.Due to this disorder majority of the red blood cell are destroyed,consequently patient becomes victim of anemia.due to this anemia red blood cell becomes  abnormal and unhealthy..Thalassemia commonly occur;s when there's mutation in one of the genes involved in hemoglobin production and in this way this genetic defect is inherited from parents. Thalassemia minor is developed when only one of the parents is already carrier of Thalassemia and as a result of this  you will not have symptoms of this disease.How ever some people with this minor category may get some sort of minor symptoms and contrary to this if  both of the parents carries of thalassemia then you have more chances of inheriting more serious form of this disease.The patient of this disease is commonly found in the countries like Asia,Middle East,Africa and Turkey

Role of Cousin marriage

Cousin marriage is the vital cause in spreading of thalassemia in the world particularly in Pakistan and India and this lapse happening due to lack of knowledge and proper information at the government level as well as public level.A high level of comprehensive  campaign is required on urgent basis to create awareness among the people regarding this fatal disease.According to the reliable sources and survey there are near about 80000 children only  in Pakistan suffering from this fatal disease.even the birth of 5000 children with thalasemia is a matter of great concern for the world.In Pakistan 75% thalasemia patients belong to poor and uneducated families.

Scientifically it is proved that one shouldn't marry his/her cousin in order to be safe from thalasemia. I have observed many cases in Pakistan that many people got married with their cousin and they had abnormal kids.why it so?Just ask to your self!Why people still marry their son/daughter in their own family ?

Now people need to correct their mistakes and should concentrate on the positive solution of this calamity,they should take it seriously .people should put their best efforts to make community familiar pertaining to the causes,.remedy and solution  of this universal problem

According to the reliable sources in Pakistan there are approximately 1-1.2 million thalasemia patients and due to the cousin marriage this rate is increasing day by day .Thalassemia child need huge amount of blood which is cause of complication and some it is very difficult to manage huge amount of blood from donors and philanthropists

In addition to this cousin marriage has several other disavantages like there are 50% higher risk of obtaining genetic disorder,mental,physical and sexual defects are also frequently found due to cousin marriage.There is a specific term used for cousin marriage known as ''consanguineous marriage''.An other crucial factor beside the cousin marriage is the wedding in side the ''berathri ''or berathrism ''which render as much risk as cousin marriage.The ratio of first cousin in Pakistan is more than 82.2 percent and 6.8 % are blood relatives and only 4.4 % are married out of their families

After an international survey it is concluded that a comprehensive ban should be imposed on cousin marriages across the world but in Pakistan ,ignorance,cast superiority and complex are the major obstacles in the way of decreasing number of cousin marriage.Despite said condition the ratio of divorce is very low only 0.9 % to 1.5 % and the probability of gaining genetic problem is 20 %.Human being carries recessive  gene mutation and as a result of inter breed ,these mutation become dominant and may start showing more expression in the population The gene mutation can become more frequent if population having small gene pool'In addition to this blindness,  skin disease  become more frequent and common due to cousin marriage

.At the end of this topic i have come to the conclusion that the marriage with in  ''biradri ''should be discouraged and newly married couples should seek counselling  on the  possible genetic  disorders so that the possibility of genetic disorder should be minimize.It is a bare fact that the risk of disorder was common in the first cousin marriage beside this reality second cousin marriage  also were not spared and at the end i would like to make request before my readers please  give your comments.