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Experts: Inbreeding main cause of Arab infant mortality
Jerusalem Post ^ | Aug. 16, 2005 | Judy Siegel-Itzkovich

Posted on 08/16/2005 2:52:25 PM PDT by Alouette

After lowering infant mortality rates among Arabs in western Galilee through the reduction of neonatal infections, early detection and encouraging abortions of fetuses with major and lethal congenital defects, public health experts are now focusing on the last main cause of babies' deaths in this population: inbreeding.

Dr. Avshalom Strulov of the University of Haifa's Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Studies and of the Health Ministry's Northern District health office reports in the August issue of the Israel Medical Association Journal about efforts to discourage Arab first cousins and other close relatives from marrying. Such consanguineous marriages, he writes, "are not part of the Islamic religion" and are indeed harmful since they lead to the conception of fetuses with serious inherited diseases.

The district health office has initiated a project in areas with large Arab populations that includes study days for health personnel, initiation of reports against inbreeding in the Arabic-language mass media, and encouragement of Muslim religious leaders to declare in mosques that this practice is likely to produce defective children.

Most of the activity, however, recruits elementary and high-school teachers in the Arab sector who speak to pupils about the dangers of marrying close relatives. "The effect on the reduction of the rates of consanguineous marriages should be observable within years, and the effect on infant mortality within generations," Strulov predicts.

The three-pronged effort would further reduce the gap in infant mortality rates between the Jewish and Arab populations in Israel, he said. In 2002, the annual infant mortality rate was 4.0 per 1,000 live births among Jews and 9.0 among Arabs; in the Northern District, it was 5.4 among Jews and 7.8 among Arabs.

Strulov was appointed by the ministry nearly two decades ago as coordinator of a multi-professional and multi-organizational committee that aimed at reducing the gap in infant mortality between the two sectors as much as possible.

In the early Eighties, the rate among Arabs was 22.6 per 1,000 live births and half that among Jews.

The main causes of deaths of Arab babies in summer were acute gastrointestinal infections and diarrhea, and in winter, upper respiratory tract infections and hypothermia (low body temperature due to inadequate heating).

Information campaigns about preventing and treating both of these conditions, as well as better means for refrigeration and hygiene, brought these deaths almost down to zero.

Ultrasound facilities, doctors and subsidies by Clalit Health Services significantly increased the early detection of severe congenital defects in fetuses, most of whose mothers decided on an abortion.

The remaining major problem was consanguinity, said Strulov, and while progress on this took many years, movement was in the right direction.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Extended News; Foreign Affairs; Miscellaneous; News/Current Events; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: arabs; arabworld; cousinmarriage; inbred; nosurprise; retarded
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To: SittinYonder
"suicide bombers wrapping their ... ding-a-lings ... in tin foil"

LOL --I missed that...what news source had that.
101 posted on 08/16/2005 5:14:05 PM PDT by JSteff
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To: mac_truck

If a couple from Saudi Arabia moved to California, would they still legally be considered brother and sister?


102 posted on 08/16/2005 5:16:56 PM PDT by gorush (Exterminate the Moops!)
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To: Alouette

bump for later perusal and laughter


103 posted on 08/16/2005 5:22:59 PM PDT by TexanToTheCore (Rock the pews, Baby)
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To: Doctor Stochastic

What's your explanation for a majority of the population of California and Massachusetts?

Judging from your ignorant comment, maybe you should examine your own family tree before throwing stones at others.


104 posted on 08/16/2005 5:28:52 PM PDT by Politicalmom (Just one more reason to hate the government....)
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To: Alouette
some "bazaar" music?
105 posted on 08/16/2005 5:33:13 PM PDT by rang1995 (They will love us when we win)
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To: semaj

Is this some sort of Biblical slur?

The product of these abhorrent acts of sin were the Moabites and Ammonites, and they did not come to a good end. Lot's entire family is in the Bible as an example of sinful behavior.


106 posted on 08/16/2005 5:33:20 PM PDT by Politicalmom (Just one more reason to hate the government....)
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To: Righty_McRight

I just find it interesting that God would pick them out, that's all.


107 posted on 08/16/2005 5:45:50 PM PDT by JoJo Gunn (Help control the Leftist population. Have them spayed or neutered. ©)
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To: Andy'smom

Not my field, but I always thought that it was the hemophilia that weakened the royals of Europe, and that it was a spontaneous mutation, not a result of cousin marriage.

And wasn't there a problem with porphyria too, before that? Also inherited, though IIRC Victoria did not inherit that disorder.


108 posted on 08/16/2005 5:47:24 PM PDT by Graymatter
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To: Andy'smom
The "Cousin Couples" website conveniently forgets to mention Queen Victoria

They don't include the Rothschilds either.

109 posted on 08/16/2005 5:55:37 PM PDT by Alouette (Yibaneh Beit HaMikdash bimera b'yamenu, v'ten helkeynu b'Torahtecha)
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To: Alouette

It's Bush's fault.


110 posted on 08/16/2005 5:56:25 PM PDT by Mercat (God loves us where He finds us.)
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To: Alouette

Sandbillies! Bwaa ha haaa!


111 posted on 08/16/2005 6:06:11 PM PDT by Solamente
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To: Doctor Stochastic

Loser


112 posted on 08/16/2005 6:09:32 PM PDT by Selkie (Still On Vaca. Adios Amigos.)
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To: Alouette

Inbreeding makes for Muslim problems.... can't say I'm shocked here


113 posted on 08/16/2005 6:12:58 PM PDT by dennisw (G_D : Against Amelek for all generations)
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To: Alouette

I thought it was the main cause of them being stuck in the 12th century. Or is that due to their religion?


114 posted on 08/16/2005 6:13:46 PM PDT by trubluolyguy (Well, why did you pull a gun on me if you didn't want to have sex?)
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To: Politicalmom
Is this some sort of Biblical slur?

No slur at all, just proof that the God of the Bible knows what He's talking about. The Bible reads like today's Headline News.

115 posted on 08/16/2005 6:13:50 PM PDT by semaj ("....by their fruit you will know them.")
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To: Alouette

is this a joke? bump for later reading


116 posted on 08/16/2005 6:29:44 PM PDT by Kevin OMalley (No, not Freeper#95235, Freeper #1165: Charter member, What Was My Login Club.)
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To: JSteff

If you haven't already found it:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/1464567/posts


117 posted on 08/16/2005 6:48:51 PM PDT by SittinYonder (Nemo me impune lacessit)
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To: null and void
I'm a bit puzzled by this as well. I was given to understand that there were NO circumstances where a møøslimb woman could get an abortion, even if continuing the pregnancy would surely result in the death of both the woman and child.

I am wondering about this myself...

118 posted on 08/16/2005 7:05:42 PM PDT by conservative cat
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To: GladesGuru
Might I point out that while some states do allow first cousins to marry, only those like the family that whelped Bill Clinton are the types to practice such marriages as a matter of habit.

Jimmy Carter, also. I am (yes, it's shameful) distantly related to him, and I have seen his family tree. His grandparents were first cousins with each other.

119 posted on 08/16/2005 7:07:49 PM PDT by conservative cat
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To: GGpaX4DumpedTea; null and void
These deaths don't count in the infant mortality numbers?

very good point.

120 posted on 08/16/2005 7:14:42 PM PDT by mac_truck (Aide toi et dieu l’aidera)
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