The Ministry of Health has allocated an annual SR100 million for premarital tests of hereditary blood diseases, AIDS and Hepatitis. The cost of previous tests done throughout the past period is estimated at SR360 million, according to the Arabic daily Al-Madina. With the addition of AIDS and Hepatitis tests, the cost of testing for each couple is expected to rise by at least 50 percent. The addition of these two diseases to the testing is a supplement for the “Healthy Marriage” plan the government had started in 2002. Back then, the government had set legislation to test couples about to be married for genetic compatibility, which included blood genetic diseases that had been noticed to be widespread among Saudis, particularly in the Eastern Province. Treatment of these diseases – such as sickle cell anemia, enzymopathy and hereditary anemia – is costly and time-consuming. Also in 2002, the Ministry of Health had prepared 90 laboratories all over the country to manage premarital tests and deliver the results to couples in total confidentiality. Couples would also be familiarized with the health risks surrounding their forthcoming marriage if the results show genetic incompatibility. A decision issued by the Council of Ministers made it compulsory for couples to be tested for two more diseases. AIDS is a syndrome caused by advanced stages of HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus) infection. The HIV virus largely damages an AIDS patient's immune system. Hepatitis is an inflammation of the liver caused by a number of etiologic agents and is a sexually- and blood-transmitted disease. Saudi AIDS patients – mostly men – are 3,000 out of 11,000 HIV-positive cases detected in the Kingdom. About 73 percent of them were infected by sexual contact, six percent were fetuses that had gotten the infection from their mothers, and four percent were infected through bad injection needles. The Ministry of Health had already tested 730,000 men and women – of which 53,000 couples were genetically incompatible – that cost SR360 million at an average SR500 for each examination. The rate would be SR800 after the addition of AIDS and Hepatitis examinations. __
