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28 March 2024

Saudi scraps 165,000 marriages because of Aids...

Pre-marriage test centre set up by the health ministry 11 years ago. (File)

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By Staff

Nearly 165,000 couples in Saudi Arabia cancelled plans to marry in 2014 after tests showed they were suffering from Aids and other diseases, a newspaper in the oil-rich Gulf Kingdom reported on Wednesday.

“Around 165,000 planned marriage cases in the Kingdom were cancelled last year because of Aids, Thalassemia, Hepatitis B and Anemia,” 'Okaz' Arabic language newspaper said, quoting Mohammed Saeedi, director of the department for combating contagious diseases at the Saudi health ministry.

He said a pre-marriage test centre set up by the health ministry 11 years ago receives between 270,000 and 300,000 couples every year, adding that it is intended to ensure the Saudi society is free of genetic and infectious diseases.