Medical experts at a high-profile international symposium at the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation (SIUT) have raised serious alarm over the widespread practice of inter-family marriages in Pakistan, warning that such marriages are contributing to a growing burden of life-threatening genetic disorders among children.
Organised by the SIUT’s Paediatric Nephrology Department, the daylong event brought together leading national and international specialists who shared evidence linking consanguineous marriages—particularly between cousins—to conditions like thalassemia and congenital kidney diseases.
According to the experts, over 60 percent of marriages in Pakistan are between close relatives, leading to a severely compromised gene pool. “This is a silent genetic time bomb. With such a high rate of inter-family marriages, we are seeing more and more children born with inherited disorders that are difficult, if not impossible, to treat,” warned one of the keynote speakers at the symposium.
Dr Moin Salem from the UK and other speakers echoed the concern, pointing out that thalassemia major is a prominent example of a preventable genetic disorder. “Children with thalassemia are condemned to a lifetime of monthly blood transfusions and eventually face complications like organ damage,” said Dr Salman Kermani, a paediatric endocrinologist at Aga Khan University Hospital.
Dr Seema Hashmi and Dr Ali Lanewala of the SIUT added that inherited kidney diseases are increasingly common among Pakistani children, with early-onset renal failure becoming alarmingly frequent.
They stressed the importance of genetic counselling for at-risk families and called on general practitioners and pediatricians to refer patients to specialists at the earliest possible stage. Speakers urged the medical community to take a proactive role in public education and family counselling. “Preventing these disorders starts with awareness. Doctors must counsel families, especially in communities where cousin marriages are culturally entrenched,” said Dr Lanewala.
Speakers at the symposium called for coordinated national strategies, including mandatory pre-marital screening for certain hereditary conditions and the inclusion of genetic education in public health campaigns.