WORLD HAEMOPHILIA DAY

• World Haemophilia day is celebrated on 17th April every year, aiming to increase awareness about haemophilia and other inherited bleeding disorders.
• The day is celebrated in the honour of Frank Schnabel, founder of the World Federation of Haemophilia (WHF).
• This year’s (2022) theme is “Access for All: Partnership. Policy. Progress. Engaging your government, integrating inherited bleeding disorders into national policy”.
• Haemophilia is a medical condition, mostly inherited, in which the ability of blood to clot is severely reduced, so that even a minor injury can cause severe bleeding.
• Haemophilia is caused by a mutation or change, in one of the genes, that provides instructions for making the clotting factor proteins needed to form a blood clot.
• This change or mutation can prevent the clotting protein from working properly or to be missing altogether. These genes are located on the X chromosome.
• Because of the genetics involved in the way the sex of a child is determined, men are more vulnerable to haemophilia than women.

Symptoms:

1. Big bruises.
2. Bleeding into muscles and joints.
3. Spontaneous bleeding (sudden bleeding inside the body for no clear reason).
4. Prolonged bleeding after getting a cut, removing a tooth, or having surgery.

Treatment:

• The main treatment for Haemophilia is Replacement Therapy.
• Concentrates of clotting factor VIII (for Haemophilia A) or clotting factor IX (for Haemophilia B) are slowly dripped or injected into a vein. These infusions help replace the clotting factor that is missing or low.
• What is the Indian Scenario of Haemophilia?
• According to the World Federation of Haemophilia’s Annual Global Survey 2017, there were over 1.96 lakh persons living with haemophilia across the world in 2017.
• In the country-wise data, India emerges with the highest count at nearly 19,000.
• It is estimated that 80% cases go unregistered, so that the actual count is close to 2 lakh.

SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT