Are you familiar with the medical condition known as hemophilia? People who suffer from hemophilia have blood that do not clot properly. It is rare, hereditary, and occurs most often in males than in females. Moreover, it could affect the young as much as the elderly. April is World Hemophilia Month, and Blood Brothers Aid Inc., a non-profit organization based in the Philippines, aims to raise awareness about hemophilia in the country and to get more Filipinos to recognize the problem and help through blood or monetary donations.
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Queen Victoria passed hemophilia
to some of her descendants.
Image source: Wikipedia.org |
The blood of patients with hemophilia lack protein which is important in clotting. Therefore, wounds from injuries take a lot of time to heal. Usual symptoms of this condition include deep bruising, joint pain and swelling caused by internal bleeding, spontaneous bleeding (e.g. nosebleeds), or prolonged bleeding from cuts, after surgery, or even after a tooth extraction. Diagnosis is made through a blood test that measures the level of clotting factor activity in the blood.
Clotting factor concentrates, however, are not readily available in the Philippines. International groups or volunteers ship medicine in from other countries, though supplies are minimal. In the absence of these drugs, a person in need of replacement therapy would require blood or plasma transfusions, and are at the mercy of the limited supply of blood available in hospitals.
There are reported incidents of deaths among hemophiliacs due to the long wait for blood donations.
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