UMAR IDRIS SHUAIBU – Kano
A premarital checkup involves similar tests to routine health screenings with some additional ones. The additional tests involved help detect fertility and health complications, as well as hereditary defects.
Premarital testing and counseling are recommended by experts for couples that are about to get married, to prevent as much as possible transmitting diseases to their offspring and themselves.
Recently a member of the Kano State House of Assembly from Takai/Sumaila constituency, Musa Ali Kachako in a motion presented, advised the House to come up with a bill that will insist on such kind of test before getting married.
The move ideally means it is imperative for intending couples to know their health status before going into marital life for them not to spread their peculiar health problems to others that are free from such kind of cases innocently.
Majorly, people tend to neglect the opportunity of doing the test simply because they do not want to embark on premarital testing.
In Jigawa State, for example, made it compulsory to undergo pre-marriage test mostly that has to do with Sickle Cell problem, in a bid to mitigate the spread of the problem to their unborn children.
Some intending couple interviewed by Daily News 24 expressed their mixed reactions, which many said they will not get married unless they undergo a certain test, to testify their genuine health status.
The situation differs in the case of Malam Musa from Mariri Quarters, as he is suffering from his little child that is sickle cell carrier, as a result of not undergoing a premarriage test with his spouse.
According to a Medical Expert at the Community Medicine Department, Aminu Kano Teaching Hospital, Doctor Abdullahi Isah Kauran Mata, the method is a package of preventive care that is given to intending couple, with the aim of preventing them from getting any form of infection from one another or preventing them from some diseases that are of genetic origin.
Doctor Abdullahi Isah Kauran Mata noted that couples need to go for the premarital test due to the health implication attach to it.
“The concept of the counseling and the screening is to ensure that the intending couple is screened.
“To be counselled on what screening is all about, they need to be told about the findings if negative or positive, and then at the end of the test, they need to be informed to make an informed decision among themselves.
“There are a number of tests, but the most important ones that we encourage in this part of the world include those of genetic abnormalities like sickle cell disease.
“If they’re found to be incompatible, then they’re advised to look elsewhere, that is to say, to go and get a partner that is compatible with their findings.
“The other component is that of an infection that can be transmitted from one person to the other, which the commonest one is that of HIV”, Doctor Kauran Mata said.
He then advised parents and intending couples to understand the benefit derived from embarking on the premarital tests.
An Islamic Cleric in Kano Metropolis Malam Umar Aliyu Abubakar Hotoro reiterated how Islam encourages taking care of health, no matter the situation somebody found himself in.
“Health is giving priority by Islamic Religion because without no any form of Ibadat will be done.
“In addition, anything that will tamper one’s health is not encouraged to go near it”, Malam Umar Aliyu Hotoro said.
Medicals experts believe that if people utilize the advantage of premarital testing, problems of spreading HIV, Hepatitis, and other communicable disease will reduce to the barest minimum in society.
