Manama, September 25: Officials at six fertility clinics in Bahrain were reluctant to comment yesterday on the Health Min-istry’s warning for them to act more responsibly to prevent premature births.
Speaking off record, one official claimed there was only one clinic in Bahrain that was working irresponsibly by implanting more embryos than internationally recommended.
The official alleged that its clinic and the majority of others in Bahrain abided by international standards by only implanting one or two embryos and at the maximum three.
However, this particular clinic had a reputation for implanting up to nine embryos at a time.
Officials at the clinic in question didn’t respond to GDN’s call for a comment.
Another clinic said the ministry’s warning didn’t apply to them and another agreed to comment next week.
The ministry announced yesterday that an inquiry had been launched into why seven babies born prematurely had died at Salmaniya Medical Complex’s neonatal unit in the space of a week.
Ministry officials blam-ed the high number of deaths on stretched facilities due to multiple births following IVF treatment.
Ministry officials were unavailable for further comment.
–Agencies–