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. “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. 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.