The Health Improvement Board of The Council of European Jamaats was recently commissioned to look into the implementation of the 1980s mandate by the World Federation regarding the premarital testing of Thalassaemia and HIV.

We were taking into account the sensitivities surrounding such a request and the legislative limitations posed by the current laws.

This includes the role of a charity and how it's responsibility is defined under the articles of Human rights. We are currently working to put together an implementation policy which will be published in the near future.

Our community is unique in it's foresight with this issue and we started considering the impact genetic illness can have in a small community such as ours. The initial education focused around cousin marriages almost 20 years ago. This is now a focus in the larger Muslim community and in the secular health and genetics circles. We now face a more wider challenge of marriages in an insular community and hence a small genetic pool which can have a bigger impact especially on genetic illnesses such as Thalassaemia. Our implementation policies will take this into account in it's formation.

It was in recognition of the extensive pioneering work that was undertaken by the community in the past that we were invited by the all party committee for sickle cell and Thalassaemia to attend a reception held to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the National Sickle cell and Thalassaemia screening. This was hosted at the House of Commons by the shadow minister for Public Health Diane Abbot MP.

The event was attended by the chairman of HIB, Dr. Rizwan Alidina who has an interest in primary care genetics and our CoEJ Executive Counsellor Br. Abbas Rahim whose jamaat has been on the forefront promoting such testing. They were accompanied by Dr. Shuja Shafi from the Muslim Council of Britain. This was a good networking opportunity where we discussed our past achievements and our vision with our hosts. Our discussions with Diane Abbot particularly about our future vision has emphasised how our preceding leadership have taken serious and delicate health matters and dealt with them to the benefit of the community. It also paved the way for others to follow and we hope to see her in the near future to discuss these issues and look at ways of working with the all party committee towards a common aim.

HIB