Oman Ministry of Health refutes claim about hereditary diseases

Muscat: Oman's Ministry of Health has refuted claims that children borne from marriages of relatives are more susceptible to hereditary diseases.

MoH's statement came after a tweet went viral that said that 56.3 percent marriages in Oman are those of relatives and that is the main cause of 74 percent of congenital malformations of the births.

In a statement, it said, “Ministry of Health denies the tweet below and explains that the marriage of relatives is one of the factors that help to have children with hereditary diseases, but it is not a direct and sole condition. Most of the hereditary diseases in the sultanate are recessive diseases in the sense that it is possible to infect relatives and other relatives.”

It added, “The ideal way to build a healthy family is to do a pre-marital medical examination regardless of the marriage of relatives or non-relatives so that everyone can know whether he or she has a hereditary blood disease or other disease and, accordingly, chooses the right partner to avoid the birth of infected children.”