It’s been taboo to talk about it but first cousin marriage is common in the United Arab Emirates. Only a few scientific studies have documented it but there is a direct impact of consanguineous marriages and the health of one’s children. One study found that up to one-third of all marriages in the UAE are to first cousins, with about half of all marriages are between people considered interrelated.

Thalassemia, a blood disease found commonly between the children of people who marry is a major health concern in the United Arab Emirates yet previous studies have focused on genetics while neglecting culture and society, write authors in an International Health study. The authors of the 2023 study indicate that tradition and religion in the UAE –– consanguinity, illegality of abortion and in vitro fertilisation, plus adoption restrictions –– affect the prevention and management of this disastrous blood disorder.

Related: Muslims use breastfeeding to make adoption official

They propose changing attitudes towards traditional marriage practices, education and awareness campaigns targeting families and young people, and earlier genetic testing, which are all culturally acceptable solutions to curbing the high incidence of thalassemia in the UAE.

The treatment of thalassemia mostly depends on life-long blood transfusions and removal of excessive iron from the blood stream.

Saudi Arabia has one of the highest prevalences of thalassemia in the world, ranging from 0.4% in the Northern region to 5.9% in the Eastern region.

Thalassemia is a blood disorder passed down through families (inherited) in which the body makes an abnormal form or inadequate amount of hemoglobin. Hemoglobin is the protein in red blood cells that carries oxygen. The disorder results in large numbers of red blood cells being destroyed, which leads to anemia.

Complications from this disorder may include delayed growth, bone problems causing facial changes, liver and gall bladder problems, enlarged spleen, enlarged kidneys, diabetes, hypothyroidism, and heart problems, according to John Hopkins.

With high rates of inbreeding found in Muslim populations not only in the United Arab Emirates but also in Pakistan and among Palestinian Muslims and even Christians, there is an increase in the number of health conditions that could have been prevented if a couple married outside the family.

In India a Special Marriage Act was drafted in1954 in accord with the Hindu Marriage Act 1955 which also does not allow marriage with any first cousin. But this legal firm writes that you can marry a first cousin in India if you are Muslim.

I met a woman from Canada, a Christian Arab who had come to Israel to marry her first cousin –– a concept that seemed foreign to me but which is more common than most westerners know. She told me it was to keep the family business –– in the family. Some hospitals help with hearing aids for communities that suffer from inbreeding depression and heating loss and in Israel, for instance, young couples are advised to undertake genetic counseling before they have children to avoid any genetic disease being passed to their child. First cousin marriage is not forbidden by Jewish law in sources that I have found online but it is frowned upon due to the possibility of transmitting genetic diseases.

The legal status of first cousin marriage varies considerably from one US state to another, ranging from being legal in some states to being a criminal offense in others. It is illegal or largely illegal in 32 states and legal or largely legal in 18. However, even in the states where it is legal, the practice is not widespread. It is also not common in Canada where I grew up and it’s highly stigmatized in rural communities.

The post First cousin marriages in the United Arab Emirates leads to high numbers of thalassemia appeared first on Green Prophet.

Rats have long plagued Iran, and the problem worsens when springtime arrives: melting mountain snows flood the critters’ nests, and millions are flushed into the city’s streets and sewer network.

Tehran reportedly has more rats than its 12 million human inhabitants.

“It’s become a 24/7 war,” the head of Tehran municipality’s environmental agency, Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, said on state television last month. “We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night.”

Nearly one million rats are exterminated in Tehran every year, with city authorities launching multimillion dollar campaigns annually to curb the problem.

Authorities have employed over 45 tons of rat poison, but the rodents seem impervious, thriving despite chemical warfare: some reportedly weigh as much as 11 pounds.

Tehran city council environment adviser Ismail Kahram told Iranian news website Qudsonline that the rats, “seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them.” “They are now bigger and look different”, he said, according to the International Business Times. “These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution. They have jumped from 2 ounces to 11 pounds, and cats are now smaller than them.”

So Tehran has ramped up its attack.  City officials told state media that 10 sniper teams armed with infrared scopes caught more than 2,500 rats recently, but Abu Dhabi’s The National called that number “a drop in the ocean.”

Dr David Baker, a veterinarian at Louisiana State University, told The Huffington Post it’s unlikely that a mutation caused the rats to super-size. “Nearly all genetic mutations identified across the field of biology are harmful and confer a disadvantage to the species rather than an advantage,” he said. “It’s not like in the movies.”

He conceded that there are several species of giant rats that can achieve the sizes described by Mr. Kahram.  “During the Middle Ages, black rats in Europe reportedly grew large enough – and children were small enough – to carry off babies,”  he said.

Genetic mutations aside, scientists have reported that certain rat populations are becoming poison-resistant. Last year, British researchers published findings estimating that 75% of west England’s rats were resistant to rodenticide. Last October, the BBC reported that preliminary research indicates all UK rats in could become poison-resistant within 10 years.

Rats flourish in warm weather.  As snows on the nearby Alborz mountains start melting, water levels rise,  forcing rats from their subterranean habitat.  They migrate to roadside streams along Ali Asr, the Middle East’s longest street.  The popular thoroughfare is home to restaurants and food stalls, and threads it’s way from North Tehran’s expensive neighborhoods to poorer southern suburbs, where the rat population is reportedly six times greater than the human population.

The government is considering ratcheting up the snipers to forty, but with a 6:1 ratio of vermin to humans, this war earns the monicker “quagmire”.

The post Iranian Snipers Take Aim at Tehran’s Giant Mutant Rats appeared first on Green Prophet.

It sounds like a sci-fi B movie, but the problem is real: Super-sized rats infesting Tehran are so huge that a special team of sharpshooters using night-vision-equipped rifles have been tasked with extermination. Rats have long plagued Iran, and the problem worsens when springtime arrives: melting mountain snows flood the critters’ nests, and millions are flushed into the city’s streets and sewer network. Tehran reportedly has more rats than its 12 million human inhabitants.

“It’s become a 24/7 war,” the head of Tehran municipality’s environmental agency, Mohammad Hadi Heydarzadeh, said on state television last month. “We use chemical poisons to kill the rats during the day and the snipers at night.”

Nearly one million rats are exterminated in Tehran every year, with city authorities launching multimillion dollar campaigns annually to curb the problem.

Authorities have employed over 45 tons of rat poison, but the rodents seem impervious, thriving despite chemical warfare: some reportedly weigh as much as 11 pounds.

Tehran city council environment adviser Ismail Kahram told Iranian news website Qudsonline that the rats, “seem to have had a genetic mutation, probably as a result of radiations and the chemical used on them.” “They are now bigger and look different”, he said, according to the International Business Times. “These are changes that normally take millions of years of evolution. They have jumped from 2 ounces to 11 pounds, and cats are now smaller than them.”

So Tehran has ramped up its attack.  City officials told state media that 10 sniper teams armed with infrared scopes caught more than 2,500 rats recently, but Abu Dhabi’s The National called that number “a drop in the ocean.”

Dr David Baker, a veterinarian at Louisiana State University, told The Huffington Post it’s unlikely that a mutation caused the rats to super-size. “Nearly all genetic mutations identified across the field of biology are harmful and confer a disadvantage to the species rather than an advantage,” he said. “It’s not like in the movies.”

He conceded that there are several species of giant rats that can achieve the sizes described by Mr. Kahram.  “During the Middle Ages, black rats in Europe reportedly grew large enough – and children were small enough – to carry off babies,”  he said.

Genetic mutations aside, scientists have reported that certain rat populations are becoming poison-resistant. Last year, British researchers published findings estimating that 75% of west England’s rats were resistant to rodenticide. Last October, the BBC reported that preliminary research indicates all UK rats in could become poison-resistant within 10 years.

Rats flourish in warm weather.  As snows on the nearby Alborz mountains start melting, water levels rise,  forcing rats from their subterranean habitat.  They migrate to roadside streams along Ali Asr, the Middle East’s longest street.  The popular thoroughfare is home to restaurants and food stalls, and threads it’s way from North Tehran’s expensive neighborhoods to poorer southern suburbs, where the rat population is reportedly six times greater than the human population.

The government is considering ratcheting up the snipers to forty, but with a 6:1 ratio of vermin to humans, this war earns the monicker “quagmire”.

The post Iranian Snipers Take Aim at Tehran’s Giant Mutant Rats appeared first on Green Prophet.