Hemophilia
What is hemophilia?
Hemophilia is a disorder that is passed down genetically and it makes your blood take much longer to clot (blood turning from a liquid to a solid). There is a couple different types of hemophilia including hemophilia A and hemophilia B. It is a lifelong disease, but there are treatments to help it.
Symptoms
- Many large or deep bruises
- Joint pain and swelling caused by internal bleeding
- Unexplained and excessive bleeding
- Blood in urine
- Prolonged bleeding from cuts, injuries, or after surgeries
Causes
It is caused by not having enough of some clotting factor. It is passed down by your family and almost always occurs from mother to son.
Treatments
There is no cure for Hemophilia, but only treatments to try to decrease the effects of it. Treatments depend on the severity of the condition.
Mild Hemophilia A: Involves a slow injection of the hormone desmopressin into the vein which releases more clotting factor to stop the bleeding.
Moderate to severe hemophilia A or hemophilia B: Infusion of clotting factor from donated human blood or genetically engineered products called recombinant clotting factor.
Statistics
Hemophilia affects 1 in 5,000 male births, there are about 400 babies born with Hemophilia each year.
The exact amount of people with Hemophilia is not known, but the number of people with it in the United States currently is estimated 20,000
Bibliography
- "Hemophilia - PubMed Health." National Center for Biotechnology Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth
- " Welcome to the National Hemophilia Foundation ." Welcome to the National Hemophilia Foundation . N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://www.hemophilia.org/NHFWeb/MainPgs/MainNHF.aspx?menuid=0&contentid=1>.
- "Hemophilia: Treatments and drugs - MayoClinic.com." Mayo Clinic. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/hemophilia/DS00218/DSECTION=treatments-and-drugs>.
- "Hemophilia Treatment | Conditions & Treatments | UCSF Medical Center." UCSF Medical Center. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://www.ucsfhealth.org/conditions/hemophilia/treatment.html>.
- "Causes of Hemophilia." Blood Home Page. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Mar. 2013. <http://blood.emedtv.com/hemophilia/causes-of-hemophilia.html>.