Today, April 17, various events are taking place in many countries around the world on the occasion of World Hemophilia Day, UNN reports .
Hemophilia is a rare congenital disease in which coagulation, or blood clotting, is impaired. After any injury, bleeding in hemophiliacs lasts much longer than in healthy people. They often develop internal bleeding, especially in the joints.
In newborns with hemophilia, the proteins needed for normal blood clotting are absent or at very low levels. These proteins are called clotting factors.
In case of blood vessel damage, clotting factors help platelets to connect with each other to close the damaged areas.
In people with hemophilia, blood does not clot quickly enough because they have no or very few clotting factors.
There are two main types of hemophilia: hemophilia A, the so-called classic hemophilia, and hemophilia B, or Christmases disease.
Hemophilia, with very rare exceptions, occurs only in men. Hemophilia A affects approximately 1 in 5000-10,000, while hemophilia B affects approximately 1 in 40,000, males at birth. Some women with a non-functional gene on one of the X chromosomes may have mild symptoms.
If a woman has this defective gene, she can pass it on to her children. If she gives birth to a son, there is a 50% chance that he will have hemophilia. If a daughter is born, the probability that she will carry the hemophilia gene is also 50%.
A man with hemophilia cannot transmit the disease to his sons, but all his daughters will carry the hemophilia gene.
Hemophilia is usually diagnosed when a child turns one. He or she becomes more active, and the risk of injury and bleeding increases accordingly.
Hemophilia is an incurable disease. People suffering from this disease use supportive drug therapy and must minimize the risk of any injury.
For a long time, the average age to which people with hemophilia lived was only 30 years. Thanks to the emergence of more effective medications, people with this disease have been able to live longer.
According to the World Health Organization, there are about 400,000 people in the world who suffer from hemophilia.
In Ukraine, the disease affects up to two thousand people, including about 500 minors.